Open AccessHuman development associated with environmental quality in China
Author(s) -
Xiaoyu Li,
Xu Li
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0246677
Subject(s) - human development index , china , human development (humanity) , environmental pollution , environmental quality , index (typography) , per capita , environmental degradation , panel data , human health , pollution , environmental science , econometrics , geography , environmental protection , economic growth , economics , environmental health , biology , computer science , ecology , population , medicine , archaeology , world wide web
This paper aims to investigate the connection between overall environmental quality and human development. Based on China’s provincial panel data from 2004 to 2017, this study constructed the Environment Degradation Index ( EDI ) and Human Development Index ( HDI ) to measure environmental pollution and human development, respectively, and it used the Simultaneous Equations Model (SEM) to assess the relationship between them. The results showed that there was an inverted U-shaped relationship found between EDI and HDI , and the coefficients of the first and second power of HDI were 5.2781 and -2.3476, respectively. Meanwhile, the results also confirmed that environmental pollution, in turn, delayed regional economic growth, and every 0.01 unit increase in EDI was correlated with a 3.15% decrease in GDP per capita. It is recommended that the government should speed up human development to surpass the turning point of the inverted U-shaped curve soonest possible.