IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v272y2020ics0306261920307583.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The heterogeneous effects of socioeconomic determinants on PM2.5 concentrations using a two-step panel quantile regression

Author

Listed:
  • Yan, Dan
  • Ren, Xiaohang
  • Kong, Ying
  • Ye, Bin
  • Liao, Zangyi

Abstract

The haze pollution caused by high PM2.5 concentrations has adverse health effects worldwide, especially in rapidly developing China. As meteorological conditions are uncontrollable, this study aims to investigate how anthropogenic factors affect the PM2.5 concentration under high, medium and low emission levels. The distribution of socioeconomic variables is often non-normal, with important information hidden in the tail. By using balanced panel data of 273 Chinese cities from 2010 to 2016, two-step panel quantile regression is adopted to examine the cross-quantile heterogeneity of seven socioeconomic variables: economic growth, industrial structure, urbanization, foreign direct investment (FDI), population density, public transportation and energy consumption. The empirical results show that the relationships of PM2.5 concentration with economic growth, urbanization, industrialization and FDI are heterogeneous. Compared with other variables, population density exerts the greatest positive effect on PM2.5 pollution across all quantile cities. Moreover, the impact of GDP per capita on PM2.5 concentration in the lower 25th quantile cities is stronger than those in the 25th-50th, 50th-75th and upper 75th quantile cities. The effects of FDI in the upper 75th and lower 25th quantile cities are higher than those in the 25th-50th and 50th-75th quantile cities, which supports the “pollution haven” hypothesis. The impact of industrial structure on PM2.5 concentration in the upper 75th quantile cities is larger than those in the 0-25th, 25th-50th, and 50th-75th quantile cities. The heterogeneous effects of these socioeconomic determinants could assist policymakers in implementing differentiated policies that fit cities with different levels of air pollution.

Suggested Citation

  • Yan, Dan & Ren, Xiaohang & Kong, Ying & Ye, Bin & Liao, Zangyi, 2020. "The heterogeneous effects of socioeconomic determinants on PM2.5 concentrations using a two-step panel quantile regression," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:272:y:2020:i:c:s0306261920307583
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115246
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261920307583
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115246?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Koenker, Roger W & Bassett, Gilbert, Jr, 1978. "Regression Quantiles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 33-50, January.
    2. Cheng Cheng & Xiaohang Ren & Zhen Wang & Yukun Shi, 2018. "The Impacts of Non-Fossil Energy, Economic Growth, Energy Consumption, and Oil Price on Carbon Intensity: Evidence from a Panel Quantile Regression Analysis of EU 28," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-20, November.
    3. Robert Hoffmann & Chew-Ging Lee & Bala Ramasamy & Matthew Yeung, 2005. "FDI and pollution: a granger causality test using panel data," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(3), pages 311-317.
    4. Chen, Jing & Zhou, Chunshan & Wang, Shaojian & Li, Shijie, 2018. "Impacts of energy consumption structure, energy intensity, economic growth, urbanization on PM2.5 concentrations in countries globally," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 94-105.
    5. Guan, Dabo & Su, Xin & Zhang, Qiang & Peters, Glen P & Lei, Yu & He, Kebin & Liu, Zhu, 2014. "The socioeconomic drivers of China’s primary PM 2.5 emissions," Scholarly Articles 34253797, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    6. Omri, Anis & Nguyen, Duc Khuong & Rault, Christophe, 2014. "Causal interactions between CO2 emissions, FDI, and economic growth: Evidence from dynamic simultaneous-equation models," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 382-389.
    7. Ivan A. Canay, 2011. "A simple approach to quantile regression for panel data," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 14(3), pages 368-386, October.
    8. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Nasreen, Samia & Abbas, Faisal & Anis, Omri, 2015. "Does foreign direct investment impede environmental quality in high-, middle-, and low-income countries?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 275-287.
    9. Lin, Boqiang & Xu, Bin, 2018. "Factors affecting CO2 emissions in China's agriculture sector: A quantile regression," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 15-27.
    10. repec:ipg:wpaper:2014-542 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Zhenghui Li & Hao Dong & Zimei Huang & Pierre Failler, 2019. "Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on Environmental Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-16, June.
    12. J. Lelieveld & J. S. Evans & M. Fnais & D. Giannadaki & A. Pozzer, 2015. "The contribution of outdoor air pollution sources to premature mortality on a global scale," Nature, Nature, vol. 525(7569), pages 367-371, September.
    13. Kangyin Dong & Xiucheng Dong & Cong Dong, 2019. "Determinants of the global and regional CO2 emissions: What causes what and where?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(46), pages 5031-5044, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Dong, Kangyin & Dong, Xiucheng & Ren, Xiaohang, 2020. "Can expanding natural gas infrastructure mitigate CO2 emissions? Analysis of heterogeneous and mediation effects for China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    2. Tarek Ghazouani, 2022. "The Effect of FDI Inflows, Urbanization, Industrialization, and Technological Innovation on CO2 Emissions: Evidence from Tunisia," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(4), pages 3265-3295, December.
    3. 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.
    4. Chao-Qun Ma & Jiang-Long Liu & Yi-Shuai Ren & Yong Jiang, 2019. "The Impact of Economic Growth, FDI and Energy Intensity on China’s Manufacturing Industry’s CO 2 Emissions: An Empirical Study Based on the Fixed-Effect Panel Quantile Regression Model," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-16, December.
    5. Solarin, Sakiru Adebola & Al-Mulali, Usama & Musah, Ibrahim & Ozturk, Ilhan, 2017. "Investigating the pollution haven hypothesis in Ghana: An empirical investigation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 706-719.
    6. Wen Jun & Muhammad Zakaria & Syed Jawad Hussain Shahzad & Hamid Mahmood, 2018. "Effect of FDI on Pollution in China: New Insights Based on Wavelet Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-20, October.
    7. Singhania, Monica & Saini, Neha, 2021. "Demystifying pollution haven hypothesis: Role of FDI," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 516-528.
    8. Kuang, Yunming & Lin, Boqiang, 2023. "Unwatched pollution reduction: The effect of natural gas utilization on air quality," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    9. Fredrick Oteng Agyeman & Ma Zhiqiang & Mingxing Li & Agyemang Kwasi Sampene & Malcom Frimpong Dapaah & Emmanuel Adu Gyamfi Kedjanyi & Paul Buabeng & Yiyao Li & Saifullah Hakro & Mohammad Heydari, 2022. "Probing the Effect of Governance of Tourism Development, Economic Growth, and Foreign Direct Investment on Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Africa: The African Experience," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-24, June.
    10. Theodoros Christoforidis & Constantinos Katrakilidis, 2022. "Does Foreign Direct Investment Matter for Environmental Degradation? Empirical Evidence from Central–Eastern European Countries," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(4), pages 2665-2694, December.
    11. Müzeyyen Merve Şerifoğlu & Pelin Öge Güney, 2025. "Is the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis still valid for OECD countries? A comprehensive analysis across multiple sources," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 547-573, February.
    12. Destek, Mehmet Akif & Sinha, Avik & Özsoy, Ferda Nakıpoglu & Zafar, Muhammad Wasif, 2023. "Capital Flow and Environmental Quality at Crossroads: Designing a Sustainable Policy Framework for the Newly Industrialized Countries," MPRA Paper 117560, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Payne, James E. & Truong, Huong Hoang Diep & Chu, Lan Khanh & Doğan, Buhari & Ghosh, Sudeshna, 2023. "The effect of economic complexity and energy security on measures of energy efficiency: Evidence from panel quantile analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    14. Cuesta, Lizeth & Ruiz, Yomara, 2021. "Efecto de la globalización sobre la desigualdad. Un estudio global para 104 países usando regresiones cuantílicas [Effect of globalization on inequality. A global study for 104 countries using quan," MPRA Paper 111022, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. 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.
    16. Ibrahim Mohamed Ali Ali & Imed Attiaoui & Rabeh Khalfaoui & Aviral Kumar Tiwari, 2022. "The Effect of Urbanization and Industrialization on Income Inequality: An Analysis Based on the Method of Moments Quantile Regression," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 161(1), pages 29-50, May.
    17. Martin Binder, 2016. "Revisiting Cheerful Jane and Miserable John: the impact of income, good health, social contacts and education declines with increasing subjective well-being," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(8), pages 544-553, May.
    18. Hammoudeh, Shawkat & Tiwari, Aviral Kumar & Abakah, Emmanuel Joel Aikins & Adeabah, David, 2023. "Global value chains in sub-Saharan Africa: The role of business regulations, policies and institutions," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    19. Galina Besstremyannaya & Sergei Golovan, 2023. "Measuring heterogeneity in hospital productivity: a quantile regression approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 15-43, February.
    20. Callaway, Brantly & Li, Tong & Oka, Tatsushi, 2018. "Quantile treatment effects in difference in differences models under dependence restrictions and with only two time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 206(2), pages 395-413.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:eee:appene:v:272:y:2020:i:c:s0306261920307583. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    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.