收入差距扩大是否加剧了中国的环境污染?——基于省际碳排放的证据

Is Pollution Aggravated by Income Inequality? Evidence from China′s CO_2 Emission

本文利用中国23个省(市、区)1997—2010年的面板数据,以人均碳排放量与碳排放强度来衡量污染,分别从全国及地区角度考察了收入增长及分配对环境污染的影响。结果表明,在控制了诸如人均能源消费量等相关变量后,在全国范围内存在人均碳排放的环境库兹涅茨曲线,但拐点处的人均收入遥不可及,而碳排放强度则不然。同时,我国收入分配差距的扩大对环境质量改善不利。按地理标准分区域估计结果显示,环境库兹涅茨曲线存在与否与所选区域以及污染物指标息息相关,且收入差距对环境污染的影响程度存在地区性差异。进一步按人均收入高低及资源禀赋标准进行分类的估计结果支持了以上结论,且对于人均收入高或资本丰裕地区,收入差距扩大对环境的破坏程度较其他地区更大。同时,本文也发现了环境污染同时受到其他因素影响的事实。

By using the panel data from 1997 to 2010, this paper investigates the impact of incomes and its inequality on CO2 emission per capita and carbon intensity at the national and regional level respectively. After taking into account of energy consumption and other variables, it finds that the Environmental Kuznets Curve for CO2 emission per capita exists in China, but it seems impossible to achieve the income per capita at the inflection point. Meanwhile, the pollu- tion will be worse with the income inequality increasing. When applying the classification of geography to dividing the whole country into different regions, the results show that the effects of income and income inequality on environment vary across regions. Same conclusions can be achieved when we investigate different regions from the view of income and resource endowment. Furthermore, the impacts of income inequality on environment in regions with higher income per capita or more capital is greater than that in other regions.