IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i3p836-d203839.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Interaction Effects between Technology-Driven Urbanization and Eco-Environment: Evidence from China’s East Zhejiang Region

Author

Listed:
  • Guangtong Gu

    (Faculty of Economics and Management, Zhejiang A&F University, Yijin St, Lin’an, Hangzhou 311300, China
    Zhejiang Province Key Cultivating Think Tank—Research Academy for Rural Revitalization of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang A&F University, Yijin St, Lin’an, Hangzhou 311300, China)

  • Wenjie Zhu

    (Faculty of Economics and Management, Zhejiang A&F University, Yijin St, Lin’an, Hangzhou 311300, China
    Zhejiang Province Key Cultivating Think Tank—Research Academy for Rural Revitalization of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang A&F University, Yijin St, Lin’an, Hangzhou 311300, China)

Abstract

With the rapid pace of urbanization in populous regions, the conflict between economic development and eco-environment becomes increasingly notable, inducing policy makers to implement new technological solutions for regional sustainable growth. Choosing the East Zhejiang region in China as a case study, this paper reveals the interaction effects between technology-driven urbanization and eco-environment, by compiling novel indexes for factors such as the degree of urbanization, environmental pressure, environmental protection, and environmental quality from 2005 to 2014, and adopting a data-intensive systemic approach. Differing from previous literature, an inverted “U” structure and panel vector autoregressive model are constructed to show that: (i) Given the acceleration of technology-driven urbanization, its surrounding eco-environment is still likely to be under greater pressure; (ii) the relationships between technology-driven urbanization and environmental factors in different regions are heterogeneous, either with a normal U-shaped curve or an inverted U-shaped curve; and (iii) the two-way interaction effects are significantly unbalanced, with long-term contribution rates of environmental quality and pressure on urbanization to be 57.8% and 78.88%, respectively, which is higher than the reversal effect. This study provides scientific reference for urban planning and advocates that more technological innovations should be implemented to help maintain sustainable urbanization processes.

Suggested Citation

  • Guangtong Gu & Wenjie Zhu, 2019. "Interaction Effects between Technology-Driven Urbanization and Eco-Environment: Evidence from China’s East Zhejiang Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-15, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:3:p:836-:d:203839
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/3/836/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/3/836/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Beckerman, Wilfred, 1992. "Economic growth and the environment: Whose growth? whose environment?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 481-496, April.
    2. 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.
    3. Gene M. Grossman & Alan B. Krueger, 1995. "Economic Growth and the Environment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(2), pages 353-377.
    4. Yu Ding & Jian Peng, 2018. "Impacts of Urbanization of Mountainous Areas on Resources and Environment: Based on Ecological Footprint Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-15, March.
    5. Joakim Westerlund, 2007. "Testing for Error Correction in Panel Data," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 69(6), pages 709-748, December.
    6. Button, Kenneth, 2002. "City management and urban environmental indicators," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 217-233, February.
    7. Arrow, Kenneth & Bolin, Bert & Costanza, Robert & Dasgupta, Partha & Folke, Carl & Holling, C.S. & Jansson, Bengt-Owe & Levin, Simon & Mäler, Karl-Göran & Perrings, Charles & Pimentel, David, 1996. "Economic growth, carrying capacity, and the environment," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 104-110, February.
    8. Suzanne McCoskey & Chihwa Kao, 1998. "A residual-based test of the null of cointegration in panel data," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 57-84.
    9. F Wu, 1998. "Polycentric Urban Development and Land-Use Change in a Transitional Economy: The Case of Guangzhou," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 30(6), pages 1077-1100, June.
    10. Joakim Westerlund, 2005. "New Simple Tests for Panel Cointegration," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 297-316.
    11. Pesaran, M. Hashem & Smith, Ron, 1995. "Estimating long-run relationships from dynamic heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 79-113, July.
    12. Costanza, Robert, 1995. "Economic growth, carrying capacity, and the environment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 89-90, November.
    13. Henderson, Vernon, 2003. "The Urbanization Process and Economic Growth: The So-What Question," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 47-71, March.
    14. York, Richard & Rosa, Eugene A. & Dietz, Thomas, 2003. "STIRPAT, IPAT and ImPACT: analytic tools for unpacking the driving forces of environmental impacts," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 351-365, October.
    15. Xinliang Xu & Hongyan Cai & Daowei Sun & Lan Hu & Kwamina E. Banson, 2016. "Impacts of Mining and Urbanization on the Qin-Ba Mountainous Environment, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-15, May.
    16. Levin, Andrew & Lin, Chien-Fu & James Chu, Chia-Shang, 2002. "Unit root tests in panel data: asymptotic and finite-sample properties," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 108(1), pages 1-24, May.
    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. Yi-di Hua & Ke-man Hu & Lu-yi Qiu & Hong-an Dong & Lei Ding & Sio-Long Lo, 2022. "Exploring the interaction relationship between Beautiful China-SciTech innovation using coupling coordination and predictive analysis: a case study of Zhejiang," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(10), pages 12097-12130, October.
    2. Xuhui Ding & Zhu Fu & Hongwen Jia, 2019. "Study on Urbanization Level, Urban Primacy and Industrial Water Utilization Efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-13, November.

    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. Halkos, George, 2011. "Economy - environment relationship: The case of sulphur emissions," MPRA Paper 45480, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Myo Myo Htike & Anil Shrestha & Makoto Kakinaka, 2022. "Investigating whether the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis holds for sectoral CO2 emissions: evidence from developed and developing countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(11), pages 12712-12739, November.
    3. Louis Sevitnenyi Nkwatoh, 2022. "Zero-pollution effect and economic development: standard and nested environmental Kuznets curve analyses for West Africa," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(10), pages 11895-11910, October.
    4. Carson, Richard T, 2009. "Searching for Empirical Regularity and Theoretical Structure: The Environmental Kuznets Curve," University of California at San Diego, Economics Working Paper Series qt4m6263c2, Department of Economics, UC San Diego.
    5. 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 1-30, June.
    6. Muhammad Shahbaz & Syed Jawad Hussain Shahzad & Mantu Kumar Mahalik & Perry Sadorsky, 2018. "How strong is the causal relationship between globalization and energy consumption in developed economies? A country-specific time-series and panel analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(13), pages 1479-1494, March.
    7. Rothman, Dale S., 1998. "Environmental Kuznets curves--real progress or passing the buck?: A case for consumption-based approaches," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 177-194, May.
    8. Malayaranjan Sahoo & Narayan Sethi, 2022. "The dynamic impact of urbanization, structural transformation, and technological innovation on ecological footprint and PM2.5: evidence from newly industrialized countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 4244-4277, March.
    9. Richard T. Carson, 2010. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve: Seeking Empirical Regularity and Theoretical Structure," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 4(1), pages 3-23, Winter.
    10. Luzzati, T. & Orsini, M., 2009. "Investigating the energy-environmental Kuznets curve," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 291-300.
    11. Abdelaziz Boukhelkhal, 2022. "Energy use, economic growth and CO2 emissions in Africa: does the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis exist? New evidence from heterogeneous panel under cross-sectional dependence," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(11), pages 13083-13110, November.
    12. Stern, David I., 2014. "The Environmental Kuznets Curve: A Primer," Working Papers 249424, Australian National University, Centre for Climate Economics & Policy.
    13. Kangyin Dong & Xiucheng Dong & Qingzhe Jiang, 2020. "How renewable energy consumption lower global CO2 emissions? Evidence from countries with different income levels," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(6), pages 1665-1698, June.
    14. Pascalau, Razvan & Qirjo, Dhimitri, 2017. "TTIP and the Environmental Kuznets Curve," MPRA Paper 80192, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Saia, Artjom, 2023. "Digitalization and CO2 emissions: Dynamics under R&D and technology innovation regimes," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    16. Priscilla Massa-Sánchez & Luis Quintana-Romero & Ronny Correa-Quezada & María de la Cruz del Río-Rama, 2020. "Empirical Evidence in Ecuador between Economic Growth and Environmental Deterioration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-20, January.
    17. Atwi, Majed & Barberán, Ramón & Mur, Jesús & Angulo, Ana, 2018. "CO2 Kuznets Curve Revisited: From Cross-Sections to Panel Data Models," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 40, pages 169-196.
    18. Muhammad Azam & Zia Ur Rehman & Yusnidah Ibrahim, 2022. "Causal nexus in industrialization, urbanization, trade openness, and carbon emissions: empirical evidence from OPEC economies," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(12), pages 13990-14010, December.
    19. Linna Chen & Shiyi Chen, 2015. "The Estimation of Environmental Kuznets Curve in China: Nonparametric Panel Approach," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 46(3), pages 405-420, October.
    20. Muhammad Shahbaz & Avik Sinha & Andreas Kontoleon, 2022. "Decomposing scale and technique effects of economic growth on energy consumption: Fresh evidence from developing economies," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 1848-1869, April.

    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:11:y:2019:i:3:p:836-:d:203839. 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.