Does haze pollution affect public health in China from the perspective of environmental efficiency?

Abstract

This study attempts to introduce haze pollution into the environmental efficiency evaluation framework and measures PM2.5 environmental efficiency in China during 2001–2017 based on the slack-based measure (SBM)-undesirable model. The results show that the PM2.5 environmental efficiency value is 0.707 in China with a trend of slow decline over time, and there is regional diversity in PM2.5 environmental efficiency, with eastern, central and western values of 0.912, 0.554 and 0.601, respectively. Furthermore, this study examines the impact of PM2.5 environmental efficiency (EFF) on public health. The empirical findings indicate that EFF has a significant positive impact on public health. That is, if EFF is increased by 1%, respiratory disease mortality per 10,000 persons will be decreased by 2% provided that all other variables remain unchanged. In addition, medical technical personal in healthcare institutions per 1000 persons (RYS), population density (POP) and urbanization level (CITY) play an active role in promoting the level of public health. However, healthcare expenditure as a percentage of the per capita disposable income of rural households (NC), health expenditure as a percentage of GDP in fiscal expenditure (GJK) and the per capita tobacco expenditure of urban households (YC) all hinder the improvement of public health. Finally, the paper fails to observe a significant relationship between healthcare expenditure as a percentage of per capita disposable income of urban households (CZ), the enrolment rate of school-age children (EDU) and public health. Finally, this paper provides policy recommendations on controlling haze pollution, developing an efficient economy and improving public health in the future.