Inequality In Environmental Quality Of China:Measurement,Influencing Factors And Financial Governance

Environment is the most basic place for human existence.Environmental quality is a typical public good and the "final product" in the whole production and supply chain of environmental public goods and public services.Public sector and private sector produce a good and suitable living environment for people through providing a series of environmental public services.Therefore,to control environmental pollution and improve environmental quality,so that all people can enjoy a clean and safe living environment without discrimination,fairness and justice,and reduce the level of environmental inequality is related to everyone’s vital interests,but also related to the realization of social equity and justice.This paper theoretically analyzes the public goods attributes of environmental quality.From the perspective of equity,it elaborates the formation mechanism and theoretical mechanism of environmental quality inequality from the perspectives of economy,society and geography,and builds a theoretical analysis framework to analyze environmental quality inequality.In empirical dimensions to public demand for the most sensitive and the most pressing policy intervention fine particulate matter(PM2.5)concentration as an indicator reflecting the environmental quality,the use of SocioEconomic Data and Applications Center(SEDAC)Center provide annual global PM2.5 raster Data,were calculated respectively in the framework of spatial scales in all parts of the points of the provinces,cities,environmental quality of the gini coefficient,thayer index,And further through the weighted coefficient of variation of population and GDP measure the heterogeneity in the population and economic development under the perspective of environmental quality of inequality in China,using the index of environment quality,the decomposition of identify the different administrative level environmental quality differences in inequality,and through the visual form from two dimensions of time and space to show the change trend of inequality.Finally,using the shapley value decomposition method based on regression of provincial,city and county level 3 of the quality of the environment influence factors in the quantitative assessment and on the basis of the factors that impact on the environment quality of inequality decomposition,focus on the proportion of financial factors in it,and examines the subdivided subjects of fiscal expenditure and fiscal expenditure category unequal explanatory power to the environment.The study finds that China has a relatively high level of inequality in regional environmental quality,and there is still a lot of room for improvement.China’s environmental quality inequality is more concentrated among provinces,while the provincial and prefectural levels contribute less to environmental quality inequality.From the perspective of environmental population and economic burden,most counties in China have the problem of environmental quality inequality relative to population distribution and economic output.Through the determination and decomposition of the influencing factors,it is found that economic development level,industrial structure,urbanization rate,population density and financial factors are the main factors affecting environmental quality inequality.Environmental fiscal expenditure remains a key factor in determining the inequality of environmental quality in different regions.Fiscal expenditure on environmental protection plays the most important role in the financial factors of environmental inequality.Transfer expenditure and purchase expenditure can reduce and improve environmental inequality respectively.Based on the conclusion,this paper believes that reducing environmental inequality should be included in the goal of environmental pollution control,and environmental protection rights and expenditure responsibilities should be reasonably divided according to the hierarchy of environmental inequality.In terms of mechanism,it is necessary to establish a "three-dimensional co-governance" governance mechanism of market,government and society with regional coordination and clear rights and responsibilities.At the same time,we will make overall arrangements for polluting industries and give full play to the role of fiscal measures.Comprehensive use of fiscal means of transfer payments,environmental taxes and fees,environmental fiscal expenditure,PPP and other means to address regional environmental inequality.We will expand the scope of transfer payments for ecological function zones and consider setting up special horizontal transfer payments for environmental pollution control to improve regional environmental inequality.