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Research on the association of China-US virtual water trade based on hypothesis extraction method

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Abstract

Based on the EORA input–output tables from 2006 to 2016, this paper divided 189 countries in the world into three economies (China, the USA, and other countries) and used the hypothetical extraction method to calculate the virtual water trade volume of the three economies in the Sino-US bilateral trade. Combining with the analysis of the global value chain, the following conclusions were drawn: (1) the virtual water trade volume exported by China and the USA showed an overall increasing trend. The virtual water trade volume exported by the USA was far less than that of China, but more virtual water was transferred through trade. (2) Compared with intermediate products, China’s virtual water exports of final products were larger, but the USA was the opposite. (3) Among the three major industrial sectors, the secondary sector was the largest virtual water export sector in China, but it was the primary sector in the USA that had the largest volume of. (4) Bilateral trade had brought environmental disadvantages to China, but this situation was gradually improving.

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Data availability

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Notes

  1. Virtual water refers to the quantity of water resources needed in the production of products and services, that is, the virtual water quantity condensed in products and services.

  2. “^”: It refers to diagonalization, and the occurrence of this symbol in the following indicates that the column vector is transformed into a diagonal matrix.

  3. Taking China’s export to the USA as an example, the proportion here is obtained by “the virtual water trade volume of each economy/the sum of the virtual water trade volumes of the three economies.”.

  4. This is based on the value of nominal GDP.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant [number 71704070 and 12101279]; the Outstanding Youth Fund of Gansu Province [number 20JR5RA206]; the Gansu Provincial Higher Education Research Project [number2020A-058]; the Double First-class Scientific Research Key Project of Gansu Provincial Department of Education [GSSYLXM-06]; the Key Scientific Research Project of the Silk Road Economic Research Institute of Lanzhou University of Finance and Economics (JYYZ202102); and the Program of Lanzhou University of Finance and Economics under Grant [number Lzufe2021B-002].

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  1. School of Statistics, Lanzhou University of Finance and Economics, Lanzhou, 730020, China

    Guangyao Deng & Xiaoyu Qin

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  1. Guangyao Deng
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  2. Xiaoyu Qin
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Guangyao Deng, methodology, data curation, writing—original draft. Xiaoyu Qin, data curation, writing—original draft.

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Correspondence to Guangyao Deng.

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Deng, G., Qin, X. Research on the association of China-US virtual water trade based on hypothesis extraction method. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 54644–54656 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-26237-5

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