[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i11p4220-d183152.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Endogenous or Exogenous? Examining Trans-Boundary Air Pollution by Using the Air Quality Index (AQI): A Case Study of 30 Provinces and Autonomous Regions in China

Author

Listed:
  • Wenyang Huang

    (School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China)

  • Huiwen Wang

    (School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
    Beijing Key Laboratory of Emergency Support Simulation Technologies for City Operations, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China)

  • Yigang Wei

    (School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
    Beijing Key Laboratory of Emergency Support Simulation Technologies for City Operations, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China)

Abstract
China is experiencing severe environmental degradation, particularly air pollution. To explore whether air pollutants are spatially correlated (i.e., trans-boundary effects) and to analyse the main contributing factors, this research investigates the annual concentration of the Air Quality Index (AQI) and 13 polluting sectors in 30 provinces and autonomous regions across China. Factor analysis, the linear regression model and the spatial auto-regression (SAR) model are employed to analyse the latest data in 2014. Several important findings are derived. Firstly, the global Moran’s I test reveals that the AQI of China shows a distinct positive spatial correlation. The local Moran’s I test shows that significant high–high AQI agglomeration regions are found around the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei area and the regions of low–low AQI agglomeration all locate in south China, including Yunnan, Guangxi and Fujian. Secondly, the effectiveness of the SAR model is much better than that of the linear regression model, with a significantly improved R-squared value from 0.287 to 0.705. A given region’s AQI will rise by 0.793% if the AQI of its ambient region increases by 1%. Thirdly, car ownership, steel output, coke output, coal consumption, built-up area, diesel consumption and electric power output contribute most to air pollution according to AQI, whereas fuel oil consumption, caustic soda output and crude oil consumption are inconsiderably accountable in raising AQI. Fourthly, the air quality in Beijing and Tianjin is under great exogenous influence from nearby regions, such as Hebei’s air pollution, and cross-boundary and joint efforts must be committed by the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region in order to control air pollution.

Suggested Citation

  • Wenyang Huang & Huiwen Wang & Yigang Wei, 2018. "Endogenous or Exogenous? Examining Trans-Boundary Air Pollution by Using the Air Quality Index (AQI): A Case Study of 30 Provinces and Autonomous Regions in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-20, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:11:p:4220-:d:183152
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/11/4220/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/11/4220/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zhang, Yi & Ji, Qiang & Fan, Ying, 2018. "The price and income elasticity of China's natural gas demand: A multi-sectoral perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 332-341.
    2. Ma, Shao-Chao & Fan, Ying & Feng, Lianyong, 2017. "An evaluation of government incentives for new energy vehicles in China focusing on vehicle purchasing restrictions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 609-618.
    3. Grossman, G.M & Krueger, A.B., 1991. "Environmental Impacts of a North American Free Trade Agreement," Papers 158, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Public and International Affairs.
    4. Mo, Jian-Lei & Agnolucci, Paolo & Jiang, Mao-Rong & Fan, Ying, 2016. "The impact of Chinese carbon emission trading scheme (ETS) on low carbon energy (LCE) investment," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 271-283.
    5. Wu, Jie & Albrecht, Johan & Fan, Ying & Xia, Yan, 2016. "The design of renewable support schemes and CO2 emissions in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 4-11.
    6. Xianli Zhu & Guiyang Zhuang & Na Xiong, 2014. "A review of China's approaches toward a sustainable energy future: the period since 1990," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(5), pages 409-423, September.
    7. Jia, Jun-Jun & Xu, Jin-Hua & Fan, Ying, 2018. "Public acceptance of household energy-saving measures in Beijing: Heterogeneous preferences and policy implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 487-499.
    8. Wang, Hongxia & Fang, Hong & Yu, Xueying & Wang, Ke, 2015. "Development of natural gas vehicles in China: An assessment of enabling factors and barriers," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 80-93.
    9. Peng, Bin-Bin & Xu, Jin-Hua & Fan, Ying, 2018. "Modeling uncertainty in estimation of carbon dioxide abatement costs of energy-saving technologies for passenger cars in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 306-319.
    10. Liu, Dunnan & Liu, Mingguang & Xu, Erfeng & Pang, Bo & Guo, Xiaodan & Xiao, Bowen & Niu, Dongxiao, 2018. "Comprehensive effectiveness assessment of renewable energy generation policy: A partial equilibrium analysis in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 330-341.
    11. Yigang Wei & Cui Huang & Patrick T. I. Lam & Yong Sha & Yong Feng, 2015. "Using Urban-Carrying Capacity as a Benchmark for Sustainable Urban Development: An Empirical Study of Beijing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-25, March.
    12. Tang, Ling & Wu, Jiaqian & Yu, Lean & Bao, Qin, 2017. "Carbon allowance auction design of China's emissions trading scheme: A multi-agent-based approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 30-40.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xinghan Xu & Weijie Ren, 2019. "Application of a Hybrid Model Based on Echo State Network and Improved Particle Swarm Optimization in PM 2.5 Concentration Forecasting: A Case Study of Beijing, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-19, May.
    2. Moon Joon Kim & Xiaolin Xie & Xiaochen Zhang, 2021. "How Does an Environmental Amenity Attract Voluntary Migrants? Evidence from Ambient Air Quality in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-19, June.
    3. Yunpeng Yang & Weixin Yang, 2019. "Does Whistleblowing Work for Air Pollution Control in China? A Study Based on Three-party Evolutionary Game Model under Incomplete Information," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-20, January.
    4. Qingchen Liu & Xinyi Li & Tao Liu & Xiaojun Zhao, 2020. "Spatio-Temporal Correlation Analysis of Air Quality in China: Evidence from Provincial Capitals Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-21, March.
    5. Min-Xing Wang & Lufei Huang & Zhen-Ming Chen, 2023. "The Impact of Green Financial Policy on the Regional Economic Development Level and AQI—Evidence from Zhejiang Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-23, February.
    6. Cui, Liyuan & Chen, Zeyu & Huang, Yanfen & Yu, Huayi, 2024. "Window dressing: Changes in atmospheric pollution at boundaries in response to regional environmental policy in China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tang Yao & Yigang Wei & Jianhong Zhang & Yani Wang & Yunjiang Yu & Wenyang Huang, 2022. "What influences the urban sewage discharge in China? The effect of diversified factors on the urban sewage discharge in different regions of China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(5), pages 6099-6135, May.
    2. Zhu, Xinhua & Li, Yan & Zhang, Peifeng & Wei, Yigang & Zheng, Xuyang & Xie, Lingling, 2019. "Temporal–spatial characteristics of urban land use efficiency of China’s 35mega cities based on DEA: Decomposing technology and scale efficiency," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    3. Li, Wei & Lu, Can & Ding, Yi & Zhang, Yan-Wu, 2017. "The impacts of policy mix for resolving overcapacity in heavy chemical industry and operating national carbon emission trading market in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 509-524.
    4. Wang, Banban & Wei, Jie & Tan, Xiujie & Su, Bin, 2021. "The sectorally heterogeneous and time-varying price elasticities of energy demand in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    5. Jingxin, Gao & Jinbo, Song & Lufang, Wu, 2022. "A new methodology to measure the urban construction land-use efficiency based on the two-stage DEA model," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    6. Florentina Paraschiv & Hannah Schmid & Marten Schmitz & Vivian Dünwald & Emma Groos, 2024. "The Interplay Between China’s Regulated and Voluntary Carbon Markets and Its Influence on Renewable Energy Development—A Literature Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-23, November.
    7. Tripathy, Prajukta & Jena, Pabitra Kumar & Mishra, Bikash Ranjan, 2024. "Systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis of energy efficiency," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    8. Hongpeng Guo & Zhihao Lv & Junyi Hua & Hongxu Yuan & Qingyu Yu, 2021. "Design of Combined Auction Model for Emission Rights of International Forestry Carbon Sequestration and Other Pollutants Based on SMRA," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-18, October.
    9. Nasreen, Samia & Anwar, Sofia & Ozturk, Ilhan, 2017. "Financial stability, energy consumption and environmental quality: Evidence from South Asian economies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 1105-1122.
    10. Song, Tao & Zheng, Tingguo & Tong, Lianjun, 2008. "An empirical test of the environmental Kuznets curve in China: A panel cointegration approach," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 381-392, September.
    11. Chen Shi & Yujiao Xian & Zhixin Wang & Ke Wang, 2023. "Marginal abatement cost curve of carbon emissions in China: a functional data analysis," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 1-25, February.
    12. Giedrė Lapinskienė & Kęstutis Peleckis & Neringa Slavinskaitė, 2017. "Energy consumption, economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union countries," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(6), pages 1082-1097, November.
    13. Emrah Kocak & Hayriye Hilal Baglitas, 2022. "The path to sustainable municipal solid waste management: Do human development, energy efficiency, and income inequality matter?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 1947-1962, December.
    14. Jose Mendez & Lewis Gale, "undated". "A Note on the Empirical Relationship Between Trade, Growth and the Environment," Working Papers 2132836, Department of Economics, W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University.
    15. Jingwen Lu & Lihua Dai, 2023. "Examining the Threshold Effect of Environmental Regulation: The Impact of Agricultural Product Trade Openness on Agricultural Carbon Emissions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-21, June.
    16. Löschel, Andreas & Pothen, Frank & Schymura, Michael, 2015. "Peeling the onion: Analyzing aggregate, national and sectoral energy intensity in the European Union," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(S1), pages 63-75.
    17. Jikun Jiang & Shenglai Zhu & Weihao Wang, 2022. "Carbon Emissions, Economic Growth, Urbanization, and Foreign Trade in China: Empirical Evidence from ARDL Models," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(15), pages 1-15, August.
    18. Bradford David F. & Fender Rebecca A & Shore Stephen H. & Wagner Martin, 2005. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve: Exploring a Fresh Specification," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 1-28, June.
    19. Ruqayya Ibraheem & Ismat Nasim, 2021. "Globalization, Energy Use and Environmental Degradation in Thailand," iRASD Journal of Energy and Environment, International Research Association for Sustainable Development (iRASD), vol. 2(1), pages 01-11, June.
    20. Wang, Zheng-Xin & Jv, Yue-Qi, 2021. "A non-linear systematic grey model for forecasting the industrial economy-energy-environment system," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:11:p:4220-:d:183152. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.