Does air pollution aggravate income inequality in China? An empirical analysis based on the view of health

Liu, Feng; Zheng, Meina; Wang, Meichang

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.122469

Cited by 34 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Previous studies have demonstrated that the health burden due to environmental pollution significantly aggravates poorness and air pollution represented by PM 2.5 is usually of “pro-poorness”. − In China, there are large amounts of air pollution deaths every year with an unbalanced distribution where the health burden is commonly heavier in economically unadvanced regions, namely the “poverty-environmental trap” . This occurs because, despite heavier air pollution in developed regions, residents have more access to medical resources to reduce the exposure risk of environmental pollution. , With the enforcement of air cleaning measures, the national PM 2.5 concentration has decreased in the past years, leading to significant health benefits for residents both in urban and rural areas and a reduced gap between rich and poor in environmental health .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitigating China’s Ozone Pollution with More Balanced Health Benefits

Liu

Lei

Xue

et al. 2022

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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China is confronting the challenge of opposite health benefits (OHBs) during ambient ozone (O3) mitigation because the same reduction scheme might yield opposite impacts on O3 levels and associated public health across different regions. Here, we used a combination of chemical transport modeling, health benefit assessments, and machine learning to capture such OHBs and optimize O3 mitigation pathways based on 121 control scenarios. We revealed that, for the China mainland, Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei and its surroundings (“2 + 26” cities), Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta, there could be at most 2897, 920, 1247, and 896 additional O3-related deaths in urban areas, respectively, accompanying 21,512, 3442, 5614, and 642 avoided O3-related deaths in rural areas, respectively, at the same control stage. Additionally, potential disbenefits during O3 mitigation were “pro-wealthy”, that is, residents in developed regions are more likely to afford additional health risks. In order to avoid OHBs during O3 abatement, we proposed a two-phase control strategy, whereby the reduction ratio of NO X (nitrogen oxide) to VOCs (volatile organic compounds) was adjusted according to health benefit distribution patterns. Our study provided novel insights into China’s O3 attainment and references for other countries facing the dual challenges of environmental pollution and associated inequality issues.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitigating China’s Ozone Pollution with More Balanced Health Benefits

Liu

Lei

Xue

et al. 2022

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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“…Interestingly, some research argues that air pollution can also influence income inequality. For example, pollution may have different impacts on individual activities depending on the time dimension and eventually exacerbate the income inequality [39]. Besides, income inequality may also affect the impact of environmental pollution on different groups and make some more vulnerable [40].…”

Section: Empirical Evidence On the Linkage Between Inequality And Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It appears that air pollution can aggravate income inequality [39]. Therefore, we have to examine whether the inclusion of income inequality in the model may suffer from the endogeneity problem.…”

Section: Endogeneity Concernsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Income Inequality on Urban Air Quality: A Game Theoretical and Empirical Study in China

Wang

Yang

Shackman

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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Income inequality and environmental pollution are of great concern in China. It is important to better understand whether the narrowing of income inequality and environmental improvement contradict each other. The study aims to investigate the linkage between income inequality and environmental pollution. To illustrate the interplay between different income groups on environmental issues, we apply a mixed-strategy game. Based on the game-theoretic analytical result, the probability of residents supporting clean energy and environmental protection decreases as income inequality widens and increases as inequality narrows. This empirical study is based on the proportion of coal consumption and urban air pollution data from 113 key environmental protection cities and regions in China. The air quality data are from the National Environmental Air Quality Monitoring Network published in the China Statistical Yearbook from 2014–2018. Convincing results show that regions with higher income inequality suffer severe smog and related pollution and that economies with narrow income disparity experience significant improvements in smog and pollution control, with the expansion of the proportion of clean energy use. The results also provide no evidence of the impact of per capita income on pollution. We studied the relationship between individuals of different wealth levels within an economy, within a repeated-game setting. The finding suggests that the distribution of growth impacts pollution. Imposing higher taxes on air polluters while transferring the revenue to the lower-income group is suggested.

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“… 21 , 22 In some of the contributions to this subject, air pollution with PM 2.5 is considered to have a direct effect on the growth of the death rate in patients with respiratory diseases, while other studies go even further, to associating air pollution with poverty and unequal distribution of wealth. 23–25 Similarly, Chen and Chen emphasis the fact that PM 2.5 and PM 10 put a much higher pressure on health expenses than other pollutants, precisely because of the peculiarities and characteristics of these fine particles. 13 …”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution of Romania’s Economic Structure and Environment Degradation – An Assessment Through LMDI Decomposition Approach

Vasile¹,

Avram²,

Băncescu³

et al. 2021

RMHP

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Purpose This paper studies the relationships between air pollutants (PM 10 , PM 2.5 , N 2 O) and different diseases (tumors, skin and respiratory) and the factors influencing air pollutant emissions in Romania. Methods The methods are Toda-Yamamoto procedure of non-causality Granger test, grey relational analysis and logarithmic mean Divisia index method (LMDI). Results Air pollutants intensities dropped significantly over 2008–2017 period due to structural changes. The only economic activity that showed an increase both in volume and intensity of air pollutants, despite a downward trend of farming activities output is agriculture. Technology improvements play a significant role in mitigation of PM 2.5 emissions and a moderate role in mitigation of PM 10 emissions. For N 2 O emissions technology used contributed to an increase of N 2 O intensities. Conclusion Health policy makers should address the issue of technology improvements and mitigation of agriculture emissions to improve health of individuals and air quality.

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Does air pollution aggravate income inequality in China? An empirical analysis based on the view of health

Cited by 34 publications

References 43 publications

Mitigating China’s Ozone Pollution with More Balanced Health Benefits

Mitigating China’s Ozone Pollution with More Balanced Health Benefits

Impact of Income Inequality on Urban Air Quality: A Game Theoretical and Empirical Study in China

Evolution of Romania’s Economic Structure and Environment Degradation – An Assessment Through LMDI Decomposition Approach

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