An Empirical Research On The Relationship Between Economic Growth And Environmental Pollution In China

Since the 1960 s, scholars has paid more attention to the relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution. However, most of the studies have ignored the spatial autocorrelation of environmental pollution. Based on the panel data 31 provinces in China during 2000-2012, the paper verify that significant spatial autocorrelation exists in environmental pollution indeed. Therefore, the paper establishes spatial econometric model to analyze the relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution which is respectively measured by sulfur dioxide emissions, smoke (dust) emissions, waste water discharge and the total amount of solid waste generated. Regression result shows that the relationship is not a shape of traditional "Inverted U" but "inverted N", which means that with the economic growth, environment quality goes through "improve-deteriorate-- improve" three stages, and China is now in the second stage of deterioration. Pollution emissions all have significant spatial autocorrelation, which means that energy saving and emission reduction policies cannot be implemented in isolation, but should be implemented in a wide range of space. Too much emphasis on the development of secondary industry is not conducive to environmental improvement, and we should reduce pollution emissions through technological innovation, or promote the adjustment of industrial structure.