scholarly journals Economic Growth and Pollution Emission in China: Structural Path Analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 2569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Na Yang ◽  
Zilong Zhang ◽  
Bing Xue ◽  
Junxia Ma ◽  
Xingpeng Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Sulfur Dioxide ◽  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
Environmental Regulation ◽  
Industrial Structure ◽  
Environmental Regulations ◽  
Environmental Pollutants ◽  
Pollutant Emission ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
Inhibitory Effects

The relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution has long been a controversial topic. However, simply the detection of the existence of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) is not enough to understand how economic growth induced environmental pollution. This study investigated the path and mechanism of the effect of economic growth on the emission of two types of environmental pollutants, that is, industrial smoke and dust and sulfur dioxide, by using a structural equation model and a sample of 283 prefecture-level cities in China in 2005 and 2015. The research results show that economic growth exerted both direct and indirect effects on the emission of the two environmental pollutants. In addition to a direct impact through the economic scale effect, economic growth also indirectly impacted the two environmental pollutants emissions through three mediators, that is, industrial structure, technological innovations and environmental regulations. For different pollutants, the effect paths of economic growth on their emission showed both similarities and differences. First, with regards to industrial smoke and dust emissions and sulfur dioxide emissions, the effects of economic growth on the amount of these two emissions through environmental regulations and the industrial structure were negative inhibitory effects and positive promoting effects, respectively. This means that in prefectural-level cities in China, environmental regulation factors have produced some effects in reducing the emissions of these two pollutants while the industrial structure (level of industrialization) can increase the emissions of these two pollutants. However, the effect strength of these two paths shows a gradual weakening. Second, these two paths differ in effect strength and its changes. The positive promoting effects of the industrial structure on pollutant emission are significantly higher than the inhibitory effects of environmental regulation. In addition, our study also found that the direct impact path of economic growth on environmental pollution also passed significance testing, particularly in 2015. This shows that other reasons affect pollutant emission, such as system factors, spatial migration of industries and so forth.

Impacts of Environmental Regulation on Sustainable Economic Growth

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 749-773
Author(s):  
Jonathan Fisher
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Environmental Regulation ◽  
Technical Change ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Environmental Regulations ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Porter Hypothesis ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Environment Agency ◽  
Sustainable Economic Growth

There is considerable concern and debate about the economic impacts of environmental regulations. Jonathan Fisher, former Economics Manager at the Environment Agency in England and Wales, reviews the available evidence on this subject. Section 2 presents estimates of the costs and benefits of environmental regulations. Section 3 examines the impacts of environmental regulations on economic growth, innovation and technical change as well as impacts on competitiveness and any movement of businesses to less pollution havens. He questions call for greater certainty regarding future environmental regulations, whereas in fact there should be calls for less uncertainty. This section then suggests how this could be achieved. This section then finishes with an overview of the available evidence. This includes an examination of the Porter Hypothesis that environmental regulations can trigger greater innovation that may partially or more than fully offset the compliance costs. Section 4 then sets out principles for how better environmental regulation can improve its impacts on sustainable economic growth and illustrates how the European Union (EU) Water Framework Directive is a good example of the application of these principles in practice. Section 5 reviews current and recent political perspectives regarding developments in environmental regulations across the EU and shows how the United Kingdom (UK) has successfully positively managed to influence such developments so that EU environmental regulations now incorporate many of these principles to improve their impacts on economic growth. Section 5.1 then examines the implications of Brexit for UK environmental regulations. Finally, Section 6 sets out some best practice principles to improve the impacts of environmental regulation on sustainable economic growth, innovation and technical change.

scholarly journals How Promotion Incentives and Environmental Regulations Affect China’s Environmental Pollution?

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2907
Author(s):  
Shiwen Liu ◽  
Zhong Zhang ◽  
Guangyao Xu ◽  
Zhen Zhang ◽  
Hongyuan Li
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
Performance Appraisal ◽  
Environmental Regulation ◽  
Environmental Regulations ◽  
Synergistic Effects ◽  
Appraisal System ◽  
Interaction Terms ◽  
Cooperation Mechanism ◽  
Local Officials ◽  
The Government

As for the academics and policymakers, more attention has been given to the issue on how to reduce environmental pollution through the cooperation of environmental regulation and local officials’ promotion incentives. With the use of a city-level panel data of 266 Chinese cities from 2005 to 2016, this study preliminary explores the impacts of environmental regulations, local officials’ promotion incentives, and their interaction terms on urban environmental pollution at national and regional levels by using the spatial Durbin model. The results indicate that the impacts of environmental regulations and local officials’ promotion incentives on urban environmental pollution have achieved the desired goal with the other’s cooperation, and their interaction term’s coefficients on urban environmental pollution are significantly negative. Moreover, spatial heterogeneity is established, and the uneven development of urban environmental pollution among different regions deserves more attention. In order to effectively reduce the level of urban environmental pollution in China, the government should focus on such solutions as enhancing the implementation and supervision efficiency of environmental regulation, optimizing the performance appraisal system of local officials, improving the synergistic effects of environmental regulations and local officials’ promotion incentives, and establishing a multi-scale spatial cooperation mechanism based on both geographical and economic correlations.

Empirical Study on the Correlations of Environmental Pollution, Human Capital, and Economic Growth

2013 ◽  
pp. 128-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Guangming ◽  
An Zhaofeng
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Pollutant Emission ◽  
Human Capital Accumulation ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Protection Authority

Based on 1990-2007 data in Guangdong China, this chapter studies the correlation of environmental pollution, human capital, and economic growth. The results show that Guangdong’s economic growth deteriorates the environmental quality. Highly skilled human capital is one of the main engines of the economic growth and the growth promotes the human capital’s accumulation. Upgrading the human capital helps controlling pollutant emission and environmental pollution depresses the human capital accumulation. Furthermore, the authors hope that understanding the individual relationships between environmental pollution and human capital or economic growth will help the environmental protection authority or governments in China to make more effective and efficient regulations or policies to coordinate the country’s sustainable development.

scholarly journals Fiscal Expenditures on Science and Technology and Environmental Pollution: Evidence from China

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (23) ◽  
pp. 8761
Author(s):  
Wanfang Xiong ◽  
Yan Han ◽  
M. James C. Crabbe ◽  
Xiao-Guang Yue
Keyword(s):  
Sulfur Dioxide ◽  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Generalized Method Of Moments ◽  
Environmental Pollutants ◽  
Atmospheric Particulate Matter ◽  
Quality Improvements ◽  
So2 Emissions ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Emission Changes

Studying the driving factors of environmental pollution is of great importance for China. Previous literature mainly focused on the cause of national aggregate emission changes. However, research about the effect of fiscal expenditures on science and technology (FESTs) on environmental pollution is rare. Considering the large gap among cities in China, it is necessary to investigate whether and how FESTs affect environmental pollution among cities. We adopted three kinds of typical environmental pollutants including sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions, wastewater emission, and atmospheric particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter (PM2.5). Using the data of 260 prefecture-level cities over ten years in China, we found that FESTs play a significantly positive role in reducing sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions and PM2.5 concentrations, but fail to alleviate wastewater emissions. Specifically, for every 1% increase in FESTs, SO2 emissions were reduced by 5.317% and PM2.5 concentrations were reduced by 5.329%. Furthermore, we found that FESTs reduced environmental pollution by impeding fixed asset investments and by promoting research and development activities (R&D). Moreover, the impacts of FESTs on environmental pollution varied across regions and sub-periods. Our results are robust to a series of additional checks, including alternative econometric specifications, generalized method of moments (GMM) analysis and overcoming potential endogeneity with an instrumental variable. Our findings confirm that government efforts can be effective on pollution control in China. Hence, all governments should pay more attention to FESTs for sustainable development and environmental quality improvements.

scholarly journals Research on the Impact of Environmental Regulation and Technology Innovation on the Quality of Economic Growth

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qingyang Wu
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Panel Data ◽  
Environmental Regulation ◽  
Technological Innovation ◽  
Environmental Regulations ◽  
Threshold Model ◽  
Fixed Effect Model ◽  
Paper Test ◽  
The Impact

Abstract：This paper uses the balanced panel data from 29 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in China for a total of 17 years from 2000 to 2016 as a research sample, and establishes an empirical model to examine the impact of environmental regulations and technological innovation on the quality of economic growth. Then this paper test technological innovation as a threshold variable, in which play a regulatory role. Taking the provincial balanced panel data as a research sample, a fixed effect model, a system GMM model, and a panel threshold model were established for empirical testing and the robustness test. Based on the empirical results, this article draws the following conclusions: from a national perspective, environmental regulations and technological innovation can significantly promote the quality of economic growth; from a regional perspective, there are regional differences in impact effects. Under the constraints of environmental regulations, the promotion effect of technological innovation on the quality of economic growth will be reduced; the impact of environmental regulation on the quality of economic growth will have a "threshold effect", and environmental regulation can significantly promote the quality of economic growth only after crossing the threshold and the threshold of technological innovation.

scholarly journals Research on the Nonlinear Impact of Environmental Regulation on the Efficiency of China’s Regional Green Economy: Insights from the PSTR Model

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Shuangliang Yao ◽  
Xiang Su
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
Environmental Regulation ◽  
Economic Efficiency ◽  
Environmental Regulations ◽  
Threshold Model ◽  
Resource Depletion ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
Eastern Region ◽  
Regional Production ◽  
The Impact

This paper uses the super-efficiency SBM model to measure the green economic efficiency considering undesired output and analyzes the spatial distribution difference of green economic efficiency; secondly, the nonlinear panel threshold model is used to empirically study the nonlinear relationship between environmental regulations and green economic efficiency, and further analyzed the threshold effect of environmental regulations on the efficiency of green economy and concluded as follows. (1) The green economy efficiency index in the eastern region is mostly more significant than 1, and the green economy efficiency in most provinces in the eastern region has improved. These provinces have higher regional production levels and less environmental pollution. The green economy efficiency of the central region is second only to the eastern region. The green economy efficiency of provinces in the western region except Chongqing is less than 1, indicating that these provinces have insufficient regional production, severe environmental pollution, or extensive resource depletion. (2) The impact of environmental regulations on the efficiency of the green economy presents an inverted “U” shape, with a threshold of 0.5128 for environmental regulations. The impact of the industrial structure on the efficiency of the green economy changes from inhibition to promotion after crossing the threshold of the intensity of environmental regulation, and the degree of opening to the outside world has a complementary effect on the efficiency of the green economy. The impact of urbanization on the efficiency of the green economy changes from promotion to suppression after surpassing the threshold of the intensity of environmental regulations.

scholarly journals Simulation analysis of environmental pollution based on parallel data model

2022 ◽  
Vol 355 ◽  
pp. 02016
Author(s):  
Jiangyi Lv ◽  
Cherry Jiang ◽  
Yezun Qu ◽  
Nan Wang
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
Simulation Analysis ◽  
Environmental Pollutants ◽  
Model Verification ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Growth Trend ◽  
Parallel Data ◽  
High Degree ◽  
The Impact

Through model verification and algorithm correction, many factors unfavorable to environmental protection existing in the production of export products abroad are analyzed. The growth trend of export trade volume of industrial industries and regions with a high degree of openness is generally consistent with the emission trend of environmental pollutants. Environmental pollution restricts China's economic growth and brings certain negative effects on China's economic growth, The relevant data analysis suggestions for improving the impact of export product production on environmental pollution are put forward.

scholarly journals Energy Efficiency, Policy and GTFP

2018 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 01033
Author(s):  
Fangqing Yi ◽  
Zenglian Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Environmental Regulation ◽  
Total Factor Productivity ◽  
Industrial Structure ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
Factor Productivity ◽  
Linkage Mechanism ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact

The environmental and resource constraints on economic growth are increasingly evident. China urgently needs to reshape its economic growth momentum. The increase in green total factor productivity is particularly necessary for the growth of the quantity and quality of the economy. This paper selects the provincial panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2001 to 2015, and establishes a panel exchangeable errors model to analyze the impact of eight indicators on green total factor productivity (GTFP) and verifies its effectiveness. Empirical analysis shows that inter-provincial government competition, environmental regulation, energy consumption, and capital stock have a significant impact on green total factor productivity. The influence of foreign direct investment, industrial structure, and industrialization level on the total factor productivity of green is not significant. Therefore, the government should adopt suitable, flexible and diverse environmental regulation policies, promote energy-saving emission reduction and technology innovations through policies such as taxes and subsidies, strengthen the linkage mechanism between industrial structure upgrading and energy efficiency, to increase green total factor productivity.

The impact of the environment on economic growth: Evidence from China

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 1148-1164
Author(s):  
Chi Chang ◽  
V.M. Zaernyuk
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Environmental Regulations ◽  
Protection Policy ◽  
Industrial Sectors ◽  
Bilateral Effects ◽  
Development Objectives ◽  
The Impact

Subject. China's industrial sectors are important vehicles that made China the global leader of GDP and economic growth. However, China managed to reach such results sacrificing its environment. The study discusses the coordination of actions spurring the economic growth and environmental protection in order to avoid such sacrifices for the sake of the national economic development. Objectives. We examine the mechanism of bilateral effects on the economic growth of China's industries and environmental protection to provide the empirical framework for the reasonable natural protection policy and environmental regulations. Methods. Theoretical projections stem from the analysis of economic literature and empirical research on resources, environment and sustainable economic development in the existing theories of economic growth. Results. Having analyzed how the environmental pollution and the industrial economic growth of China correlated, we found that a set of various environmental pollution indicators strongly differed from the empirical findings of the study. Therefore, it is still not found how the economic growth of China influenced the environmental pollution. Conclusions and Relevance. The improvement of the environmental quality is not an unavoidable endogenous result of the economic growth. If the Chinese industrial sectors continues growing extensively, the environment will grow even more polluted. It is necessary to determine a reasonable environmental protection policy to combine it with economic growth, and tighten the environmental regulations.

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