Research On The Impact Of Environmental Pollution On Income Inequality

Environmental protection,economic development and income distribution are eternal topics of human concern.In the past 40 years of reform and opening up,China has achieved brilliant results.However,behind the high-speed economic growth,there are practical problems such as waste of ecological resources,serious environmental pollution and low economic efficiency.Against the background of high-quality development,how to fight the tough battle of pollution control? How to reduce the income gap through government environmental governance and individual environmental protection? To achieve such a win-win goal,a systematic analysis and grasp of the relationship between environmental pollution and income gap is required.At the same time,government environmental governance and individual environmental protection are inseparable.In fact,the impact of environmental pollution on income distribution is huge,especially for a large developing country like China.Environmental pollution has become an important obstacle to achieving high-quality development and narrowing the income gap in the new era.However,what impact does environmental pollution have on income inequality? What is the mechanism by which environmental pollution affects income inequality? The discussion of these issues not only meets the requirements of green economic development and regional economic balanced development,but also has important theoretical and practical significance for the construction of ecological civilization,sustainable development,and social equity.This article takes environmental pollution as the research object,and reveals the impact of environmental pollution on income inequality and its mechanism on the basis of human capital theory,poverty trap theory,and environmental economy.In terms of research ideas,this article follows the analysis ideas of "document combing-mechanical analysis and theoretical modeling-index construction-empirical analysis-policy recommendations".In terms of research content,it analyzes in detail the mechanism of the impact of environmental pollution on income inequality.Then,construct an index and theoretical model for empirical analysis and mechanism analysis.Finally,the conclusions of this article,policy recommendations,insufficient research and future prospects are presented.First,a theoretical analysis framework for the research on the impact of environmental pollution on income inequality is constructed.On the basis of human capital theory,poverty trap theory,income distribution theory,and environmental economic theory,the predicament of environmental pollution causing human capital damage and hindering the process of urbanization is not conducive to reducing the income gap of residents in China;environmental pollution also affects The intergenerational income gap is not conducive to reducing the income gap in China;environmental pollution also adversely affects the accumulation of individual non-cognitive abilities,and ultimately is not conducive to narrowing the income gap of residents.Second,it analyzes the impact of environmental pollution on income inequality.This paper will analyze from macro and micro aspects.On the macro level,environmental pollution has a negative externality,which hinders the reduction of the income gap of Chinese residents,while the government's ability of environmental governance can effectively reduce environmental pollution,which has a positive effect on the reduction of the income gap of Chinese residents.Based on the time series data,this paper calculates the income inequality related indicators in China from 1998 to 2017.The results show that Gini coefficient,Theil index,coefficient of variation and urban-rural income ratio show an inverted "U" trend over time,while the urban-rural income gap continues to rise.Based on panel data and principal component analysis,this paper calculates the environmental pollution index of 30 provinces in China from 1998 to 2017 And income inequality index,the results show that in recent years,environmental pollution in China's provinces shows a downward trend,while income inequality index shows that Gini coefficient and urban-rural income ratio in most provinces show an inverted "U" trend,while only some provinces are in a slow upward trend,such as Hebei Province;fixed effect model,panel quantile regression model and Gini regression score are used The results show that environmental pollution has a positive and significant impact on income inequality;environmental pollution has a significant spatial effect on income inequality,and the phenomenon of "high pollution high income inequality" is widespread;solving the endogenous problem is the focus of this paper's econometric modeling,through the simultaneous equation model,tool variable method and three-stage least square method(3SLS)to improve the parameters It is estimated that the positive effect of environmental pollution on income inequality still exists,while government environmental governance can improve environmental pollution and narrow the income gap.Third,empirical analysis of the transmission mechanism of the impact of environmental pollution on income inequality.This paper takes urbanization as a channel variable to study the mechanism of environmental pollution affecting income inequality.Environmental pollution affects income inequality by affecting urbanization.Urbanization is an important way to achieve economic growth and narrow the income gap,and environmental pollution has a negative impact on urbanization,inhibit the process of urbanization,and then hinder the opportunities for rural residents to flow to the city,and finally,expand the income gap between urban and rural areas.Environmental pollution affects the process of urbanization,which is embodied in the following aspects: environmental pollution reduces population urbanization and damages economic urbanization,and finally expands the income gap between urban and rural areas.In terms of population urbanization,environmental pollution restricts the flow of rural labor to the city.The driving effect of urban environmental pollution leads to the decline of the migration rate of the poor or rural population,which leads to the difficulty of obtaining jobs.Finally,the income gap between urban and rural areas is widened.In terms of economic urbanization,environmental pollution reduces the labor productivity,reduces output and damages wages and returns It has a negative impact on narrowing the income gap.In addition,the seriously polluted areas reduce the labor supply time,resulting in the decrease of the unit labor wage income of the labor force,and then expand the income gap.At the same time,environmental pollution will damage the employment quality of the labor force,specifically in reducing the employment proportion of the secondary industry and the tertiary industry,while increasing the employment proportion of the primary industry,in the long run,will cause the gap between the employment income of the primary industry and the employment income of the secondary and tertiary industries to widen,and eventually expand the income inequality.Fourth,in the micro aspect,environmental pollution has a positive and significant impact on the micro individual income gap,and the improvement of individual environmental protection concept and behavior can improve environmental pollution and narrow the income gap.Based on the data of CGSS in 2013,the environmental pollution index is constructed.The results show that the overall environmental pollution situation is not optimistic.The analysis results of the econometric model show that environmental pollution has a positive impact on the micro individual income gap,which is manifested in that environmental pollution significantly reduces the labor income of low-income groups,while the impact on high-income groups is not significant,so environmental pollution expands the income gap of residents;regional differences are significant,which is manifested in the phenomenon of "high pollution areas-high level income inequality" Compared with other regions,environmental pollution has a greater impact on the income gap in the eastern region.The endogeneity of micro analysis is also the focus of analysis.The results of expanding regression model and instrumental variables show that environmental pollution has a significant positive impact on income inequality,while individual environmental protection concept and behavior can improve environmental pollution and help to narrow the income gap.Fifth,the impact of environmental pollution on intergenerational income inequality is analyzed empirically.It is the first time to measure the intergenerational income inequality in China by using the CHNS data from 2000 to 2015.The results show that the intergenerational income inequality in China presents a flat "U" type distribution over time,and the Gini coefficient of the parent generation presents a "n" type trend,while the Gini coefficient of the child generation presents a wave type trend.The change trend of the Gini coefficient of the parent generation is similar to that of the parent generation,while that of the child generation is similar Now the trend of "n" type is reversed.No matter macro analysis or micro analysis,the empirical results show that environmental pollution has a positive and significant effect on intergenerational income inequality,and there are obvious regional differences.Environmental pollution has a negative effect on intergenerational income inequality in the western region,and environmental pollution shows the characteristics of "Pro poor".Sixth,empirical analysis of the transmission mechanism of the impact of environmental pollution on income inequality.This paper uses human capital as a channel variable to study the mechanism of environmental pollution affecting income inequality.Environmental pollution affects income inequality through human capital channels.Human capital is an important factor to increase and narrow the income gap of residents,and environmental pollution has a negative impact on human capital.Therefore,environmental pollution expands income inequality by damaging human capital.The impact of environmental pollution on human capital is reflected in the fact that environmental pollution expands the income gap by increasing residents' medical and health expenditure,reducing the number of years of life and years of education;not only that,environmental pollution also has a negative effect on non cognitive ability,which is reflected in the reduction of residents' interpersonal communication frequency and the reduction of access to useful information in high pollution areas,but also the increase of pollution The individual's mental depression,anxiety and other adverse symptoms,which have a negative impact on production and life,and ultimately expand the income gap;environmental pollution also affects the intergenerational income flow to expand the income gap.Heterogeneity analysis shows that high pollution increases the medical and health expenditure of low-income groups,but has no significant impact on high-income groups,so it expands the income gap between low-income and high-income groups.Compared with low pollution areas,the number of years of life and years of education of residents in high pollution areas decreased significantly,which led to the damage of human capital accumulation and then expanded the income gap in different pollution areas.Finally,compared with previous studies,the innovation of this article is as follows: the first discussion of the impact of environmental pollution on income inequality from a perspective;the system has established a theoretical and mechanism analysis framework for environmental pollution and income inequality;The principal component analysis method constructs macro and micro environmental pollution indexes respectively;innovatively uses the two macro instrumental variables of environmental pollution of government environmental governance capacity and rainfall,and the two microscopic instrumental variables of environmental pollution of individual environmental protection concepts and behaviors;adopts Measurement methods such as machine learning,Gini regression,panel quantile regression,panel threshold regression,spatial panel model and regulated intermediary model;from macro analysis to micro analysis,from direct analysis to channel analysis,from contemporary analysis to intergenerational Analysis,combining horizontal analysis,vertical analysis and in-depth analysis;based on the two channels of "environmental pollution-urbanization-income inequality" and "environmental pollution-human capital-income inequality" the study.This article focuses on empirical research,and obtains relatively new results in empirical research,which brings important reference value for studying environmental pollution and income distribution.