Evaluating Economic Growth, Industrial Structure, and Water Quality of the Xiangjiang River Basin in China Based on a Spatial Econometric Approach

Xiaohong Chen, Guodong Yi, Jia Liu, Xiang Liu and Yang Chen
Additional contact information
Xiaohong Chen: School of Business, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Guodong Yi: School of Business, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Jia Liu: School of Information and Safety Engineering, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan 430073, China
Xiang Liu: Institute of Finance, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China
Yang Chen: School of Business, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-18

Abstract: This research utilizes the environmental Kuznets curve to demonstrate the interrelationship between economic growth, industrial structure, and water quality of the Xiangjiang river basin in China by employing spatial panel data models. First, it obtains two variables (namely, COD Mn , which represents the chemical oxygen demand of using KMnO 4 as chemical oxidant, and NH 3 -N, which represents the ammonia nitrogen content index of wastewater) by pretreating the data of 42 environmental monitoring stations in the Xiangjiang river basin from 2005 to 2015. Afterward, Moran’s I index is adopted to analyze the spatial autocorrelation of COD Mn and NH 3 -N concentration. Then, a comparative analysis of the nonspatial panel model and spatial panel model is conducted. Finally, this research estimates the intermediate effect of the industrial structure of the Xiangjiang river basin in China. The results show that spatial autocorrelation exists in pollutant concentration and the relationship between economic growth and pollutant concentration shapes as an inverted-N trajectory. Moreover, the turn points of the environmental Kuznets curve for COD Mn are RMB 83,001 and RMB 108,583 per capita GDP. In contrast, the turn points for NH 3 -N are RMB 50,980 and RMB 188,931 per capita GDP. Additionally, the environmental Kuznets curve for COD Mn can be explained by industrial structure adjustment, while that for NH 3 -N cannot. As a consequence, the research suggests that the effect of various pollutants should be taken into account while making industrial policies.

Keywords: economic growth; water quality; spatial effects; industrial structure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/10/2095/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/10/2095/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:10:p:2095-:d:171797

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().