Does economic development bring more livability? Evidence from Jiangsu Province, China

Abstract

Livable level is an important component of measuring regional sustainable development. Many problems have arisen during China’s economic development, such as environmental pollution and unreasonable industrial structure. The indicator system for measuring regional livability has not been unified, existing research pays too much attention to happiness index and urban environment indicators, which cannot fully reflect the regional comprehensive environmental. Correlation analysis and entropy method are two methods to select 27 indicators and construct a regional livability index. Specifically, indicators involved eco-environment level and response system, eco-environment pressure system, living standard and public resources system, low carbon lifestyle system, employment environment and pressure system and urban development scale system. Based on the above livability index, the regional livability was measured and the SYS-GMM model was used to analyze the economic influencing factors of regional livability. Results indicated that eco-environment level and response system, employment environment and pressure system are two key factors that have the greatest impact on regional livability of Jiangsu province in China, and the spatial feature shows that varied from high to low from the south region to the northeast region. Notably, over 60% of the study areas showed significant changes in livability level. On the other hand, the results of empirical analysis showed that the proportion of tertiary industry, foreign direct investment, institutional quality and technological investment plays a positive role in the comprehensive evaluation of regional livability, economic growth, fixed asset investment plays a negative role in the comprehensive evaluation of regional livability.