Financial development-green growth nexus in China: the role of technological capital.

It is undeniable fact that financial development and technological capital are fundamental determinants that help in the achievement of green growth. This is important to explore the nexus between financial development, technological capital, and green growth in China. This study utilizes the quantile autoregressive distributed lag (QARDL) approach for exploring the effect of financial development and technological capital on green growth. The study measures financial development through financial market development and financial institutions development. The study concludes that technological progress and both measures of financial development produce a positive impact on green growth in China in most quantities in long run. The study provides various important policy suggestions that help in upgrading sustainable green growth in China.

Estimation of Health Effects and Economic Losses from Ambient Air Pollution in Undeveloped Areas: Evidence from Guangxi, China.

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, located in the southwest of China, has rapidly developed since the late 2000s. Similar to other regions, economic development has been accompanied by environmental problems, especially air pollution, which can adversely affect the health of residents in the area. In this study, we estimated the negative health effects of three major ambient pollutants, Particulate Matter with a diameter of 10 µm or less (PM10), Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) and Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) in Guangxi from 2011 to 2016 using a log-linear exposure-response function. We monetarized the economic loss using the value of statistical life (VSL) and the cost of illness (COI) methods. The results show that the total possible short-term all-cause mortality values due to PM10, SO2, and NO2 were 28,396, with the confidence intervals from 14,664 to 42,014 (14,664-42,014), 24,618 (15,480-33,371), and 46,365 (31,158-61,423), respectively. The mortality from the three pollutants was 48,098 (19,972-75,973). The economic loss of the health burden from the three pollutants was 40,555 (24,172-57,585), which was 2.86% (1.70-4.06%) of the regional gross domestic product. The result of the comparative analysis among different cities showed that urbanization, industrialization, and residents' income are important factors in air-pollution-caused health damage and subsequent economic loss. We conclude that the health burden caused by ambient pollutants in developing regions, accompanied by its rapid socio-economic growth, is significant and tighter regulation is needed in the future to alleviate air pollution and mitigate the related health damage.

Exploring China's materialization process with economic transition: analysis of raw material consumption and its socioeconomic drivers.

China's rapidly growing economy is accelerating its materialization process and thereby creating serious environmental problems at both local and global levels. Understanding the key drivers behind China's mass consumption of raw materials is thus crucial for developing sustainable resource management and providing valuable insights into how other emerging economies may be aiming to accomplish a low resource-dependent future. Our results show that China's raw material consumption (RMC) rose dramatically from 11.9 billion tons in 1997 to 20.4 billion tons in 2007, at an average annual growth rate at 5.5%. In particular, nonferrous metal minerals and iron ores increased at the highest rate, while nonmetallic minerals showed the greatest proportion (over 60%). We find that China's accelerating materialization process is closely related to its levels of urbanization and industrialization, notably demand for raw materials in the construction, services, and heavy manufacturing sectors. The growing domestic final demand level is the strongest contributor of China's growth in RMC, whereas changes in final demand composition are the largest contributors to reducing it. However, the expected offsetting effect from changes in production pattern and production-related technology level, which should be the focus of future dematerialization in China, could not be found.