Achieving high-quality environmental development through environmental regulations and thus enhancing public health is a goal of the Chinese government. Based on the panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 1998 to 2017, this study demonstrates the co-benefits of environmental regulations on air quality, water, and public health through a panel Granger causality model and mediation effect model. The findings indicate that environmental regulations have a Granger causal effect on public health costs and air and water pollution. Furthermore, the results from the mediation effect model suggest that waste gas treatment could improve air quality, thus reducing public health costs; wastewater treatments could not only reduce public health costs through improvement of the water environment but also increase social welfare. Additionally, air pollution exhibits a greater negative externality impact on health than water pollution. Thus, environmental regulation policies should pay more attention to air pollution control. The findings of this study indicate that environmental regulations have a significant co-benefit on high-quality environmental development and public health.
The technological progress in favor of energy conservation and emission reduction will
help increase green total factor productivity and thus mitigate China’s environmental problems. This
study adopts the data envelopment analysis (DEA) to measure the total factor productivity (TFP)
index of the Chinese three urban agglomerations from 2005 to 2014, and the reasons for its changes
are also analyzed. Furthermore, the biases of technological progress from two perspectives of inputs
and outputs (including the undersirable output, measured by CO2 emissions) are estimated. Main
results are: (i) During the sample period, the TFP of the three urban agglomerations continues to
increase, and the main driving force is technological change. (ii) From the perspective of inputs, the
Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei prefers to use electricity, whereas the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River
Delta urban agglomerations tend to use capital and save labor. (iii) From the perspective of outputs,
the technological progress of the three major urban agglomerations is significantly biased toward
GDP with a slight difference among the three urban agglomerations, which means its technological
progress is conducive to reduce CO2 intensity, symbolizing low carbon development. From this
point of view, their economic growth shows a low-carbon trend.
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