Water economics from public finance perspective

Water is one of the non-replaceable resources for the survival of living things and the survival of the environment. For this reason, access to clean water is vital for every living thing. Water, which is a pollutable natural resource, is getting polluted day by day in parallel with economic development, and it is difficult for everyone to access it equally due to the regional distribution of water. Population growth and concentration of the population in certain centers also increase the importance of water services and at the same time make the provision of these services equally difficult. Turkey is a developing country and needs natural resources and manpower to grow economically and accelerate growth even more. Big cities, where economic activities grow and diversify, become economic attraction centers for people and the population in these cities is increasing. Since water is used directly and indirectly in all types of production, it is of great importance to develop policies for water. In the study, data covering the years 1992-2019 published by AQUASTAT, the statistical database of the United Nations specialized agency Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), were used. In the study, the relationship between total water consumption per capita, GDP per capita and urban population was investigated within the scope of the Environmental Kuznets Curve Hypothesis (ÇKE). In the study, two models, as second degree and third degree, were established. As a result of the application of Johansen Co-integration test, CCR, FMOLS and DOLS tests in both models, it was concluded that the EKC hypothesis is not valid in Turkey. According to the Toda-Yamamoto causality test, a mutual causality relationship was determined between the city population and economic growth.