An Empirical Study on the Relationship between China’s Economic Development and Environmental Quality------Testing China’s Environmental Kuznets Curve

Abstract

Since the reform and opening-up policy, China’s economy has achieved a sustainable and fast growth. However, the traditional economic growth mode with high investments, high consumption, and high emissions causes a growing contradiction between China’s economic growth and environment. How to select an economic growth way with the harmonious development of society, economy, ecology, and environment with the restriction of environment is meaningful in theory and practice. Whether there is a reverse U-shape relationship between the national income per capita and the environmental pressure affects the policy choice of economic growth mode. If there is a reverse U-shape relationship between the national income per capita and the environmental pressure, the government can only implement measures driving the economic growth. Once economy grows to certain degree, environmental pressure will decline naturally. However, there is not a reverse U-shape relationship between them, or although there is a reverse U-shape relationship, the national income per capita at the turning point is hard to realize, the development mode adopted by many developing countries that emphasizes on economic growth, polluting first, then improving, will do nothing but worsen the environment. The government should take action to change the economic growth mode, decreasing the pressure on environment caused by economic growth. Only by this way, can it realize the sustainable development of economy. This paper firstly analyzes and comments the empirical studies of Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC), then makes regression on the national income per capita for years and the main pollutants indexes, analyzing the relationship between China’s national income per capita and environmental pressure. An empirical study shows that the relationship between China’s emission of main pollutants and the national income per capita does not follow a typical EKC.