IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i22p15984-d1281013.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessing the Impact of Pollution on Urban Scale in China: A New Perspective from Residents’ Health

Author

Listed:
  • Li He

    (Department of Public and International Affairs, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China)

  • Xukun Zhang

    (College of Social Sciences, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China)

Abstract

Environmental pollution significantly impacts the urbanization process. Despite the well-documented influence of urban scale on pollution, understanding of the specific effects of pollution at the urban scale remains limited. This study aims to further the understanding of the impact of pollution on urban scales by analyzing pollution variations and mechanisms. This study investigated city-level panel data in China, specifically assessing different pollutant emissions and their linkage to resident health. This study found that pollution has contrasting effects on urban land and population scales. It leads to expansion in urban land but has crowding-out effects on population scales. Notably, pollution from haze was found to increase urban mortality to a greater extent than pollution from industrial sources. Furthermore, this research found that increasing healthcare expenditures for urban residents can offset the negative impact of pollution on population growth and promote coordinated urbanization. This study emphasizes the importance of local government investment in medical services and public expenditures to mitigate the harmful effects of pollution on health, which can substantially prevent population outflows. Furthermore, stronger environmental protection measures can prevent urban land development sprawl resulting from pollution. In conclusion, this study highlights the need for a balanced approach to pollution control and urban development to achieve sustainable and high-quality urbanization.

Suggested Citation

  • Li He & Xukun Zhang, 2023. "Assessing the Impact of Pollution on Urban Scale in China: A New Perspective from Residents’ Health," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-21, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:22:p:15984-:d:1281013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/22/15984/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/22/15984/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shunfeng Song & Kevin Honglin Zhang, 2002. "Urbanisation and City Size Distribution in China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 39(12), pages 2317-2327, November.
    2. Klaus Desmet & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2013. "Urban Accounting and Welfare," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2296-2327, October.
    3. Li, Chao & Gibson, John, 2015. "City scale and productivity in China," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 86-90.
    4. 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.
    5. Roberta Capello & Roberto Camagni, 2000. "Beyond Optimal City Size: An Evaluation of Alternative Urban Growth Patterns," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 37(9), pages 1479-1496, August.
    6. Shuai Chen & Paulina Oliva & Peng Zhang, 2017. "The Effect of Air Pollution on Migration: Evidence from China," NBER Working Papers 24036, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Roula Inglesi-Lotz & Luis Diez del Corral Morales, 2017. "The Effect of Education on a Country’s Energy Consumption: Evidence from Developed and Developing Countries," Working Papers 201733, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
    2. Omar Abu Risha & Qingshi Wang & Mohammed Ismail Alhussam, 2023. "Impact of Foreign Enterprises’ Capital Inflow on Urbanization Factors: Evidence from Northeastern Cities of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-24, November.
    3. Iris Claus & Les Oxley & Ming Lu & Guanghua Wan, 2014. "Urbanization And Urban Systems In The People'S Republic Of China: Research Findings And Policy Recommendations," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 671-685, September.
    4. Kyung-Min Nam & John M. Reilly, 2013. "City Size Distribution as a Function of Socioeconomic Conditions: An Eclectic Approach to Downscaling Global Population," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(1), pages 208-225, January.
    5. Wang, Shaojian & Zeng, Jingyuan & Liu, Xiaoping, 2019. "Examining the multiple impacts of technological progress on CO2 emissions in China: A panel quantile regression approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 140-150.
    6. Kassouri, Yacouba & Alola, Andrew Adewale, 2022. "Towards unlocking sustainable land consumption in sub-Saharan Africa: Analysing spatio-temporal variation of built-up land footprint and its determinants," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    7. Euijune Kim & Geoffrey Hewings & Kyung-Min Nam, 2014. "Optimal Urban Population Size: National vs Local Economic Efficiency," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(2), pages 428-445, February.
    8. Zhang, Lin & He, Xiaoxia & Jia, Zhenli, 2023. "Industrial agglomeration, public services and city size: Evidence from 286 cities in China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    9. Poumanyvong, Phetkeo & Kaneko, Shinji, 2010. "Does urbanization lead to less energy use and lower CO2 emissions? A cross-country analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 434-444, December.
    10. Sadorsky, Perry, 2014. "The effect of urbanization on CO2 emissions in emerging economies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 147-153.
    11. Wang, Yang & Zhang, Hong & Liu, Libing, 2022. "Does city construction improve life quality?-evidence from POI data of China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 643-653.
    12. Kyung-Min Nam, 2017. "Is spatial distribution of China’s population excessively unequal? A cross-country comparison," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 59(2), pages 453-474, September.
    13. Sheng, Pengfei & Guo, Xiaohui, 2018. "Energy consumption associated with urbanization in China: Efficient- and inefficient-use," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(PB), pages 118-125.
    14. Claudia García-García & Catalina B. García-García & Román Salmerón, 2021. "Confronting collinearity in environmental regression models: evidence from world data," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 30(3), pages 895-926, September.
    15. Ren, Siyu & Hao, Yu & Xu, Lu & Wu, Haitao & Ba, Ning, 2021. "Digitalization and energy: How does internet development affect China's energy consumption?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    16. Shuai Shi & Kathy Pain, 2020. "Investigating China’s Mid-Yangtze River economic growth region using a spatial network growth model," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(14), pages 2973-2993, November.
    17. Fan, Fei & Dai, Shangze & Yang, Bo & Ke, Haiqian, 2023. "Urban density, directed technological change, and carbon intensity: An empirical study based on Chinese cities," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    18. Nicole Grunewald & Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso, 2009. "Driving Factors of Carbon Dioxide Emissions and the Impact from Kyoto Protocol," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 190, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    19. Juan Antonio Duro & Jordi Teixidó-Figueras & Emilio Padilla, 2017. "The Causal Factors of International Inequality in $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$ CO 2 Emissions Per Capita: A Regression-Based Inequality Decomposition Analysis," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 67(4), pages 683-700, August.
    20. Lei Gao & Taowu Pei & Jingran Zhang & Yu Tian, 2022. "The “Pollution Halo” Effect of FDI: Evidence from the Chinese Sichuan–Chongqing Urban Agglomeration," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-17, September.

    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:15:y:2023:i:22:p:15984-:d:1281013. 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.