What drives the long-term relationship between economic development and environmental quality? The role of spatial dispersion vs. agglomeration

IF 5.5 3区经济学 Q1 BUSINESS

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management Pub Date : 2025-01-31 DOI:10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103126

JunJie Wu , Kathleen Segerson , Christian Langpap

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The dramatic improvement in air quality in major Chinese cities in recent years has led to renewed interest in the question of whether economic development allows a country to “grow” out of its environmental problems. We shed new light on this question by identifying a new factor that can drive the long-term relationship between economic development and environmental quality, namely, a spatial effect that arises from a tradeoff between environmental quality and agglomeration economies. We show theoretically that this spatial effect can lead to an inverted U-shaped relationship between income and pollution, i.e., an environmental Kuznets curve. In addition, we decompose changes in US air pollution concentrations from 1990 to 2017 to allow for a possible spatial effect. Results point to the potential importance of a spatial effect in explaining the reductions in carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations. However, little of the change in sulfur dioxide (SO₂) concentrations in the US can be attributed to a potential spatial effect.

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是什么推动了经济发展与环境质量之间的长期关系？空间分散与集聚的作用

近年来，中国主要城市空气质量的显著改善，重新引发了人们对经济发展能否让一个国家“成长”出环境问题的兴趣。我们发现了一个能够推动经济发展与环境质量之间长期关系的新因素，即环境质量与集聚经济之间的权衡所产生的空间效应，从而为这个问题提供了新的视角。我们从理论上证明，这种空间效应可以导致收入与污染之间的倒u型关系，即环境库兹涅茨曲线。此外，我们分解了1990年至2017年美国空气污染浓度的变化，以考虑可能的空间效应。结果指出了空间效应在解释一氧化碳（CO）浓度降低方面的潜在重要性。然而，美国二氧化硫（SO2）浓度的变化很少可以归因于潜在的空间效应。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Environmental Economics and Management Multiple-

CiteScore

8.00

自引率

4.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Environmental Economics and Management publishes theoretical and empirical papers devoted to specific natural resources and environmental issues. For consideration, papers should (1) contain a substantial element embodying the linkage between economic systems and environmental and natural resources systems or (2) be of substantial importance in understanding the management and/or social control of the economy in its relations with the natural environment. Although the general orientation of the journal is toward economics, interdisciplinary papers by researchers in other fields of interest to resource and environmental economists will be welcomed.