The impact of China's urbanization on economic growth and pollutant emissions: An empirical study based on input-output analysis

Urbanization has become one of the engines of China's economic growth. In essence, urbanization is the migration of population from rural to urban areas. This study investigated the impact of China's urbanization on the economic growth and the pollutant emissions based on the input-output (I-O) analysis. Empirical study, using data from 2005 to 2010, shows that urbanization increased economic output by 5957.95 billion yuan, accounting for 16.40% of the total output increment during the study period. Meanwhile, urbanization increased industrial chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia nitrogen, soot, sulfur dioxide (SO2) by 469.99, 50.86,1059.28, 2353.04 thousand tons, respectively. The volumes of these pollutant emissions increments accounted for 62.73%, 26.13%, 39.30% and 188.89%, respectively, of the total emissions reduction during 2005-2010. Moreover, this study, for the first time, proposed sensitivity analysis into measuring the sensitivity coefficients of output and pollutant emissions to urbanization rate with I-O tables. Results show that the volumes of COD, ammonia nitrogen, soot, SO2 emissions, caused by consumption, varied 3.04%, 3.05%, 3.05%, 3.06%, respectively, when the urbanization rate varied by 1% in 2010; the volumes of COD, ammonia nitrogen, soot, SO2 emissions, caused by investment, all varied 8.48% when the urbanization rate varied by 1% in 2010. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.