The Impact Of Industrial Agglomeration On Environmental Quality

Industrial agglomeration is an important engine for the development of China’s economy.The rapid development of our economy is accompanied by the development of industrial agglomeration.The grow of industrial agglomeration can bring environmental quality optimization in theory.However,from the actual circumstance of our country,with the rapid formation of industrial agglomeration,our environmental quality is becoming worse and worse.In addition to paying attention to the economic dividends brought by the development of industrial agglomeration,local governments giving increasing weight to the impact of industrial agglomeration on environment.Therefore,it is of great significance to study how to stimulate economic growth through industrial agglomeration development while alleviating China’s increasingly serious environmental pollution problems.Based on the Copeland-Taylor model,this paper finds that the impact of industrial agglomeration on environment depends on the combined effects of scale effect,technical effect and structural effect.Then,this paper conducts empirical study based on prefecture-level cities and development zones,and analyzes the intermediate mechanism from the perspective of green technology progress.The results of empirical study show that there is an inverse U-shape curve relationship between industrial agglomeration and environmental pollution.More specifically,in the early stage of industrial agglomeration,industrial agglomeration will make more environment pollution,but when the agglomeration reached a certain level,it will reduce the pollution.According to the mechanism analysis,when the agglomeration level does not reach the threshold,the technological progress induced by agglomeration will increase environmental pollution,but when the agglomeration crosses the threshold,it will reduce the pollution instead.This paper also finds that only in a few regions,the level of industrial agglomeration has crossed the threshold,remarkably,these regions are basically located in the eastern part of China.From the nationwide angle,China is still in the first half of the inverse U-shape curve.This paper not only enriches the research on industrial development and environmental pollution,but also provided the realistic basis for the development of enterprises in the agglomeration area and the constitution of industry policy.