Abstract
This article focuses on the interaction between China's industrial agglomeration, foreign direct investment (FDI) and environmental pollution of public health in the past 15 years. By conducting theoretical and empirical research, we try to reveal the relationship and mechanism between the economic growth and public health from the perspective of environmental pollution. By constructing an embedded theoretical model of industrial agglomeration and FDI, this article combines other environmental pollution influencing factors, expounds the impact mechanism of industrial agglomeration on environmental pollution. Based on the provincial-level panel data of China on environmental pollution and industrial agglomeration, the empirical test is carried out through the threshold panel regression model. According to the results, industrial agglomeration can significantly rectify the regional environmental pollution, thereby benefiting public health. FDI has a phased impact on the relationship between industrial agglomeration and environmental pollution. Specifically, when the level of FDI is low, the positive improvement effect of industrial agglomeration on environmental pollution is relatively strong. This is mainly because industrial agglomeration can promote economic growth, technological progress, and enhance environmental awareness. When the level of FDI exceeds the first threshold and continues to rise, the positive improvement effect of industrial agglomeration is maximized. Before the level of FDI exceeds the second threshold, this effect gradually weakens. The population concentration and excessive expansion of city scale brought about by industrial agglomeration will lead to the increase of regional resource and energy consumption, thus aggravating environmental pollution. The policy implication is that while the government and enterprises are vigorously increasing the level of foreign investment, they must pay equal attention to economic growth and public health, and the level of industrial agglomeration should match the level of foreign investment so as to give full play to the positive improvement effect of industrial agglomeration on environmental pollution, and realize the coordinated development of the regional economy, environment and population health.
Highlights
The ultimate goal of economic development is to improve the public welfare
This paper further reveals the inner connection between industrial agglomeration and environmental pollution, in order to provide a theoretical explanation for the contradictory between industrial agglomeration and environmental pollution, and gives useful references for policymakers to formulate policies in connection with public health
The results show that the development of industrial agglomeration and foreign direct investment (FDI) can improve the level of public health by reducing environmental pollution
Summary
The ultimate goal of economic development is to improve the public welfare. As the history of human development has proved, the process of economic growth cannot fully achieve this goal. Economic growth may lead to environmental degradation, bring harm to public health, and undermine the public welfare [2]. In the past four decades, China has achieved rapid economic growth, but this has been accompanied by serious environmental pollution, which has severely damaged public health [3, 4]. In 2017, the substandard rate of 338 air quality monitored cities in China greatly exceeds 70%. From the perspective of environmental pollution, an important transmission mechanism between economic growth and public health can be revealed
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