IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jenvss/v8y2018i2d10.1007_s13412-018-0474-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A comparative study of the economy’s environmental impact between states in the USA and provinces in China

Author

Listed:
  • Feng Hao

    (University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee)

  • Guizhen He

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Michael Snipes

    (University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee)

Abstract

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are one important factor that lead to climate change, and the burning of fossil fuels for many economic activities has significantly contributed to CO2 emissions. The USA and China together accounted for 43% of global CO2 emissions in 2013. This study assesses and compares how the economy has affected the environment by analyzing data for 50 states and DC in the USA and 30 provinces in China. From a longitudinal perspective, the findings show that the economy, measured by GDP per capita, contributed to CO2 emissions. Meanwhile, the impact has become relatively decoupled. From a spatial perspective, the coastal states and provinces that have higher GDP per capita tend to have less CO2 emissions. In addition, Democratic states in the USA tend to have less CO2 emissions than Republican states, after controlling for other variables. We explain the findings by referring to the various contexts at the state/provincial level, country level, and international level. To our knowledge, this is the first study to compare the environmental impact of the economy between the US states and China’s provinces. There are many political implications of these findings for both the USA and China moving forward, especially considering the recent political climate change in the USA, along with China’s continued expansion as a major global power.

Suggested Citation

  • Feng Hao & Guizhen He & Michael Snipes, 2018. "A comparative study of the economy’s environmental impact between states in the USA and provinces in China," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 8(2), pages 132-141, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:jenvss:v:8:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s13412-018-0474-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s13412-018-0474-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13412-018-0474-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13412-018-0474-9?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Jorgenson, Andrew & Schor, Juliet & Huang, Xiaorui, 2017. "Income Inequality and Carbon Emissions in the United States: A State-level Analysis, 1997–2012," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 40-48.
    3. Meng, Lei & Guo, Ju'e & Chai, Jian & Zhang, Zengkai, 2011. "China's regional CO2 emissions: Characteristics, inter-regional transfer and emission reduction policies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 6136-6144, October.
    4. Eugene A. Rosa & Thomas Dietz, 2012. "Human drivers of national greenhouse-gas emissions," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 2(8), pages 581-586, August.
    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. Wang, Zhenshuang & Xie, Wanchen & Zhang, Chengyi, 2023. "Towards COP26 targets: Characteristics and influencing factors of spatial correlation network structure on U.S. carbon emission," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(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. Natalia Davidson & Oleg Mariev & Sophia Turkanova, 2021. "Does income inequality matter for CO2 emissions in Russian regions?," Equilibrium. Quarterly Journal of Economics and Economic Policy, Institute of Economic Research, vol. 16(3), pages 533-551, September.
    2. Squalli, Jay, 2017. "Renewable energy, coal as a baseload power source, and greenhouse gas emissions: Evidence from U.S. state-level data," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 479-488.
    3. Underwood, Anthony & Zahran, Sammy, 2015. "The carbon implications of declining household scale economies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 182-190.
    4. Chao, Chi-Chur & Trinh, Cong Tam & Nguyen, Xuan, 2023. "Carbon neutrality and wage inequality in a sustainable economy: New evidence from business dynamism," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    5. Recep Ulucak & Danish & Yaoqi Zhang & Rui Chen & Yiting Qiu, 2024. "Income Inequality, Economic Complexity, and Renewable Energy Impacts in Controlling Consumption-Based Carbon Emissions," Evaluation Review, , vol. 48(1), pages 119-142, February.
    6. Zhang, C. & Sun, Y. & Hu, R., 2018. "Does urban-rural income inequality increase agricultural fertilizer or pesticide use? A provincial panel data analysis in China," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277033, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    7. Nicholas Marinucci & Kris Ivanovski, 2023. "Does Inequality Affect Climate Change? A Regional and Sectoral Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 166(3), pages 705-729, April.
    8. Uzar, Umut, 2024. "The dynamic effect of income distribution, natural resources, and freedom of press on ecological footprint: Theory and empirical evidence for emerging economies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    9. Muhammad Umar Farooq & Azka Amin & Sun Peng & Cem Işık & Ramaisa Aqdas & Muhammad Akbar & Gul Sabahat & Serdar Ongan, 2023. "Role of Innovations to Mitigate CO 2 e: Theory and Evidence for European Economies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-13, May.
    10. Ibrahim Mohamed Ali Ali, 2023. "Income Inequality and Environmental Degradation in Middle-Income Countries: A Test of Two Competing Hypotheses," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 166(2), pages 299-321, April.
    11. Langnel, Zechariah & Amegavi, George Babington & Donkor, Prince & Mensah, James Kwame, 2021. "Income inequality, human capital, natural resource abundance, and ecological footprint in ECOWAS member countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    12. Wen, Lanjiao & Chatalova, Lioudmila & Gao, Xin & Zhang, Anlu, 2021. "Reduction of carbon emissions through resource-saving and environment-friendly regional economic integration: Evidence from Wuhan metropolitan area, China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    13. Rojas-Vallejos, Jorge & Lastuka, Amy, 2020. "The income inequality and carbon emissions trade-off revisited," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    14. Wan, Guanghua & Wang, Chen & Wang, Jinxian & Zhang, Xun, 2022. "The income inequality-CO2 emissions nexus: Transmission mechanisms," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    15. Kyle W. Knight & Juliet B. Schor, 2014. "Economic Growth and Climate Change: A Cross-National Analysis of Territorial and Consumption-Based Carbon Emissions in High-Income Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(6), pages 1-10, June.
    16. Wenyan Wang & Juan Wang & Fang Guo, 2018. "Carbon Dioxide (CO 2 ) Emission Reduction Potential in East and South Coastal China: Scenario Analysis Based on STIRPAT," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-18, June.
    17. Uddin, Md. Main & Mishra, Vinod & Smyth, Russell, 2020. "Income inequality and CO2 emissions in the G7, 1870–2014: Evidence from non-parametric modelling," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    18. Gilbert Ahamer, 2018. "Applying Global Databases to Foresight for Energy and Land Use: The GCDB Method," Foresight and STI Governance (Foresight-Russia till No. 3/2015), National Research University Higher School of Economics, vol. 12(4), pages 46-61.
    19. Salih Ozturk & Murat Cetin & Harun Demir, 2022. "Income inequality and CO2 emissions: nonlinear evidence from Turkey," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(10), pages 11911-11928, October.
    20. Xiaoqing Lin & Chunyan Lu & Kaishan Song & Ying Su & Yifan Lei & Lianxiu Zhong & Yibin Gao, 2020. "Analysis of Coupling Coordination Variance between Urbanization Quality and Eco-Environment Pressure: A Case Study of the West Taiwan Strait Urban Agglomeration, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-19, March.

    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:spr:jenvss:v:8:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s13412-018-0474-9. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.