The impact of economic agglomeration on water pollutant emissions from the perspective of spatial spillover effects

Abstract

Whether economic agglomeration can promote improvement in environmental quality is of great importance not only to China's pollution prevention and control plans but also to its future sustainable development. Based on the COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) and NH 3-N (Ammonia Nitrogen) emissions Database of 339 Cities at the city level in China, this study explores the impact of economic agglomeration on water pollutant emissions, including the differences in magnitude of the impact in relation to city size using an econometric model. The study also examines the spillover effect of economic agglomeration, by conducting univariate and bivariate spatial autocorrelation analysis. The results show that economic agglomeration can effectively reduce water pollutant emissions, and a 1% increase in economic agglomeration could lead to a decrease in COD emissions by 0.117% and NH 3-N emissions by 0.102%. Compared with large and megacities, economic agglomeration has a more prominent effect on the emission reduction of water pollution in small-and medium-sized cities. From the perspective of spatial spillover, the interaction between economic agglomeration and water pollutant emissions shows four basic patterns: high agglomeration-high emissions, high agglomeration-low emissions, low agglomeration-high emissions, and low agglomeration-low emissions. The results suggest that the high agglomeration-high emissions regions are mainly distributed in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Shandong Peninsula, and the Harbin-Changchun urban agglomeration; thus, local governments should consider the spatial spillover effect of economic agglomeration in formulating appropriate water pollutant mitigation policies.

Water quality in Indonesia: The role of socioeconomic indicators

“…Whereas, the next variable of economic growth using the squared of GRDP per capita ( 2 ) showed positive and significant results on water quality. The results of this study are in line with Ito (2005) Zhou et al (2019) said that when the country first enters the stage of rapid economic growth-indicate by GRDP per capita growth-environmental degradation initially increase, but then decrease once the GRDP per capita reaches a certain threshold. Another potential analysis for the positive effect of squared of GRDP per capita is that the willingness to pay for water supply tends to increase along with increasing incomes, the higher the desire to improve health through improving the quality of the environment, especially in improving the water quality index.…”

“…The number of establishments of micro and small scale manufacturing industry and a group of workers ( ) shows negative and significant results on water quality at a significant level of 5%. The results of this study are in line with Ito (2005); Zhang et al (2017); Chen et al (2018); Li et al (2019); and Zhou et al (2019) that industrial companies have an impact on water quality degradation. Although growth in employment will increase and the number of small and mediumsized industrial companies, on the one hand, indicates economic progress, on the other hand, it harms the quality of clean water.…”

“…The variable of economic growth in this study using GRDP per capita ( ) showed negative and significant results on water quality. This research is in line with Ito (2005); Choi et al (2015); Boretti & Rosa (2019); and Zhou et al (2019) that the decline in environmental quality as a negative externality of economic growth which ultimately causes many environmental problems, especially water quality. Economic growth will increase the use and utilization of natural resources.…”

“…The study of water pollutant emissions by Zhou et al (2019) in 339 cities at the city level in China from the perspective of spatial spillover effects by conducting univariate and bivariate spatial autocorrelation analyzes. The results show that economic agglomeration can effectively reduce water pollutant emissions, and a 1% increase in economic agglomeration can cause a reduction in COD emissions by 0.117% and NH3-N emissions by 0.102%.…”

Agglomeration externalities and the non‐linear performance of environmental regulation: Evidence from China

“…When encountering environmental issues, the positive externalities bring benefits to pollution abatement in two aspects—on the one hand, agglomeration can reduce firms' abatement cost; on the other hand, agglomeration can increase firms' abatement willingness. The positive externalities of economic agglomeration can induce the generation of new knowledge and technologies, as well as the transmission of information and skills, through intermediate input sharing, labor pooling and knowledge spillover (Chen et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2020; Zhou et al., 2019), which could motivate green innovation and lower the abatement cost. The agglomeration of industrial activities can facilitate centralized treatments of pollutants, achieve scale effects in pollution abatement and reduce the cost (Copeland & Taylor, 2004; Zhou et al., 2019).…”