The unequal exchange of air pollution and economic benefits embodied in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei's consumption

Huibin Du, Huiwen Liu and Zengkai Zhang

Ecological Economics, 2022, vol. 195, issue C

Abstract: China's most critically air polluted area, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region has attracted significant attention; the regional linkage of environmental indicators in BTH has been widely studied in recent years. The city-level air pollutants and economic benefits hidden in trade activities are still poorly understood. This paper examines air pollutants and economic benefits embodied in BTH's consumption based on a city-level input-output table. Our results show that transfer flows of air pollutants and value-added between different cities lead to the unequal exchange of air pollution and economic benefits in BTH. Beijing gains more value-added (38.40%) through trade compared with its atmospheric pollutant equivalents (APE, 1.75%) induced by consumption demand in BTH. Conversely, Tangshan, Shijiazhuang, and Handan emit more air pollutants compared with the benefits they gain through trade. The results provide evidence for the establishment of compensation mechanisms between cities.

Keywords: Air pollution; BTH; Embodied air pollutants; Value-added; Multi-region input-output model (MRIO) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:195:y:2022:i:c:s0921800922000568

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107394

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