Trade Openness and the Environmental Kuznets Curve: Evidence from Cities in the People's Republic of China
Fang, Zheng; Huang, Bihong; Yang, Zhuoxiang | November 2018
Abstract
This paper examines the impact on the environment of economic growth and trade openness in 261 cities in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) over the period 2004–2013, using a recently developed, continuously updated, fully modified method that allows for cross-sectional dependence and endogeneity. The study investigates two types of pollutant, industrial wastewater and sulfur dioxide, and employs three measures of openness in the regression. The results show that the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis holds not only for the whole of the PRC but also for different regions. The paper estimates that wastewater pollution increases with economic development until the per capita gross domestic product (GDP) reaches the turning point of CNY31,849–CNY49,446 (in constant 2002 prices), which varies depending on the specific measure of trade openness. It finds that the turning point for sulfur dioxide occurs at a much lower income level, around CNY9,274–CNY10,103 per capita GDP. Furthermore, the results indicate that cities featuring greater openness tend to have lower industrial wastewater emissions but higher sulfur dioxide emissions.
Citation
Fang, Zheng; Huang, Bihong; Yang, Zhuoxiang. 2018. Trade Openness and the Environmental Kuznets Curve: Evidence from Cities in the People's Republic of China. © Asian Development Bank Institute. http://hdl.handle.net/11540/9053.Keywords
Work Environment
Urban Environment
Social Environment
Regulatory Environments
Marine Environment
International Environmental Relations
Institutional Environment Assessment
Global Environment
Environmental Sustainability
Environmental Strategy
Environmental Services
Environmental Resources
Environmental Management and Planning
Environmental Issues
Environmental Guidelines
Environmental Effects
Environment and Pollution Prevention
Trade Flows
Trade And Development
Food Security And Trade
Trade Volume
Trade Potential
Trade Flows
External Trade
Industrial policy
New technology
Innovations
Industry
Export policy
Import policy
Trade Unions
Environmental Control
Environmental Technology
Land Development
Forestry Development
Fishery Development
Environmental Statistics
Environmental Planning
Environmental Management
Environmental Education
Environmental Capacity
Pollution Control
Nature Protection
Environmental Conservation
Regional development bank
Trade development
Import volume
Export volume
Tariff negotiations
Regional integration
Trade regulations
Air quality indexes
Ecological risk assessment
Environmental impact evaluation
Analysis of environmental impact
Environmental toxicology
Health risk assessment
Rain and rainfall
Acid precipitation
Ozone-depleting substance mitigation
Greenhouse gas mitigation
Prevention of pollution
Air quality
Air quality management
Pollution
Labor and globalization
Labor policy
Regional trading blocs
Foreign trade and employment
Developing countries
Industrial priorities
Technological innovation
Technology transfer
Foreign trade regulation
Industrial relations
Trade-unions
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