Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Measurement and space-time evolution of health level under constraint of environmental pollution, China: 2002–2016

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

China’s massive energy consumption and low energy efficiency have caused severe environmental pollution and posed great threat to the national health level. The general occurrence of health complications caused by cumulative environmental pollution in China is on the rise. This paper attempts to shed light on the evolutionary trajectory of health level in China under the constraint of environmental pollution. Firstly, on the basis of environmental pressure and environmental elasticity, an evaluation system of environmental pollution is constructed, and China’s environmental pollution level is obtained with combination evaluation method. An evaluation system for measuring health level is proposed based on three dimensions of health, namely health foundation, health behavior and environment, and health protection. To avoid possible bias caused by neglecting environmental pollution in estimating health level and emphasize the health depletion by environmental pollution, this paper adopts pollution levels to correct health levels. Finally, an analysis is made concerning the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of health level on the basis on the Theil index and spatial distribution map. The results reveal three facts: (1) Environmental pollution level in China is lowering with improvement in environmental quality; (2) The overall health level in China is rising, but the local health level is deteriorating; and (3) The spatial distribution of the health level is characterized by unbalance. From the perspective of difference, intra-regional difference is greater than inter-regional difference. The health level difference between the provinces in the same region is the main contribution to the overall difference. In terms of spatial distribution, the lower health level is mainly concentrated in the north, while the higher health level is found in the southern provinces and parts of the western provinces.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ao JT, Yu XF, Chen JW et al (2008) Simulated model on the effect of the temperature change on the fate of pollutants: a case study on the Songhua River nitrobenzene pollution accident. J Saf Environ 8(2):102–106

    Google Scholar 

  • Arusha C (2013) Does health capital have differential effects on economic growth? Applied Economics Letters 20(3):244–249

  • Aslan A, Menegaki AN, Tugcu CT (2015) Health and economic growth in high-income countries revisited: evidence from an augmented production function for the period 1980–2009. Qual Quant 50(2):1–17

    Google Scholar 

  • Atilgan E, Kilic D, Ertugrul HM (2017) The dynamic relationship between health expenditure and economic growth: is the health-led growth hypothesis valid for Turkey. Eur J Health Econ 18(5):567–574

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ban L, Yuan XL, He B (2018) Regional difference and emission reduction path to China’s environmental pollution in China. Journal of Xi’an JiaotongUniversity:Social Science Edition 38(03):34–43

    Google Scholar 

  • Cai HN (2014) Study on the effect of healthy human capital on economic growth. Hubei University

  • Cao Y, Yan Y (2017) Nonlinear threshold effect research of health human capital and economic growth. Chinese Health Service Management 34(03):161–164

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen HL, Chen QF (2009) Economic growth, foreign trade and environmental: a simultaneous equation estimation. Ind Econ Res 3:29–34

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Cheng C (2017) Study on the effect of water pollution on human health. China Health Industry 14(15):20–21

    Google Scholar 

  • Davlasheridze M, Goetz S, Han Y (2018) The effect of mental illness on U.S. county economic growth. Rev Reg Stud 48(2):155–171

    Google Scholar 

  • Ding H, Hu HB (2005) Urban air pollution and phytoremediation. Journal of Nanjing Forestry University: Humanities and Social Sciences Edition 5(2):84–88

    Google Scholar 

  • Dong JY, Wang SG, Shang KZ (2009) Influence of precipitation on air quality in several cities, China. Journal of Arid Land Resources and Environment 23(12):43–48

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Doppelhofer G, Miller RI (2004) Determinants of long-term growth: a Bayesian averaging of classical estimates (BACE) approach. Am Econ Rev 94(4):813–835

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ehrlich I, Lui FT (1991) Intergenerational trade, longevity, and economic growth. J Polit Econ 99(5):1029–1059

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fan NG (2014) A review of the study on the effects of water pollution on human health in China. Chinese Journal of Urban and Rural Enterprise Hygiene 1:116–118

    Google Scholar 

  • Färe R, Grosskopf S, Pasurka CA (2010) Toxic releases an environmental performance index for coal-fired power plants. Energy Econ 32(1):158–165

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fogel RW (1994) Economic growth, population theory, and physiology: the bearing of long-term processes on the making of economic policy. Am Econ Rev 84(3):369–395

    Google Scholar 

  • Gawande K, Bohara AK, Berrens RP, Wang P (2000) Internal migration and the environmental Kuznets curve for US hazardous waste sites. Ecol Econ 33(1):151–166

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hao Y, Liu YM (2016) The influential factors of urban PM2.5 concentrations in China: a spatial econometric analysis. J Clean Prod 112:1443–1453

  • Hao F, Zhang Y (2019) Provincial differences and spatial correlation effects of health capital of Urban Residents in China. J Bus Econ 328(02):64–75

  • Huang XP, Yan LF, Liu S (2013) Study on regional differences of the impact of healthy human capital on economic growth. Health Economics Research 02:22–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Jin WM (2012) Analysis on impact of precipitation variation on atmospheric pollutants concentration. J Environ Prot Sci 38(2):23–26

  • Li L, He CQ. (2017) 100 core indicators of health modernization based on health risk-health state-health response. Chinese journal of bone and joint surgery 10 (06):521-524

  • Li RB, Wang WY, Tan JN, Li HR (2004) The health index of Chinese and its regional differences. Hum Geogr 03:64–68

    Google Scholar 

  • Liang Q (2012) The impact of healthy human capital on economic growth. Guangxi Normal University

  • Liu BL, Yuan XL (2015) Comprehensive evaluation and convergence analysis of provincial environmental quality for China: an empirical analysis based on the years from 1996 to 2012. Journal of Xi’an Jiaotong University: Social Sciences Edition 4:32–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luo K (2006) Healthy human capital and economic growth: data evidence from China’s provinces. Economic Science 04:83–93

    Google Scholar 

  • Luo J, Fan JH (2017) Calculation on health human capital level in Shanghai based on Perpetual Inventory Method. Journal of Shanghai University of Engineering Science 31(03):267–272

    Google Scholar 

  • Qiao GK (2017) Study on the coupled relationship between healthy human capital and educational human capital investment. Contemporary Economics 24:146–147

    Google Scholar 

  • Reeves A, Basu S, Mckee M et al (2013) Does investment in the health sector promote or inhibit economic growth. Glob Health 9(1):43–43

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roca J, Serrano M (2007) Income growth and atmospheric pollution in Spain: an input-output approach Ecological Economics 63(1):230–242

  • Song T, Zheng T, Tong L (2008) An empirical test of the environmental Kuznets curve in China: a panel cointegration approach. China Econ Rev 19(3):381–392

  • Strauss J, Thomas D (1998) Health, nutrition, and economic development. J Econ Lit 36(2):766–817

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang L, Wang Z, Liu LY et al (2006) Research in assessment and optimization for ecological functions of urban garden plants. Environmental Pollution & Control 28(1):51–54

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang H, Zhang JM, Wu Z, Li HY (2017) Research on healthy human capital index system. Shanghai Management Science 39(04):30–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Wei MH, Lee GWM, Wu CC (2008) GHG emissions, GDP growth and the Kyoto protocol: a revisit of environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis. Energy Policy 36(1):239–247

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Xia HY, Li XL, Han K (2011) Studies on the environmental capacity of the Dapeng Bay, part I: numerical study of water self-purification capacity. China Environ Sci 31(12):2031–2038

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yang WP (2010) Dynamic comprehensive evaluation of China’s provincial pollution and research on influencing factors. Economic Management Journal 32(08):159–165

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang WP, Zhao JK, Zhao K (2018) Analysis of regional difference and spatial influencing factors of human settlement ecological environment in China. Sustainability 10:1520

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang Y, Wang XL (1999) Study on pollution mechanism and prevention of Baiyangdian Lake. Water Resour Protect 4:29–32

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang DM, Jin CX (2014) Pollution tax accumulation of healthy human capital and long –run economic growth. Finance & Economics (12):79–87

  • Zhang HF, Zhou F, Yang H, Guo Q (2009) Regulation performance of the win-win of environmental protection and economic development. Econ Res 3:14–26

  • Zhao JK, Yang WP (2017) Estimation on green development efficiency of regions in China. Statistics & Decision 24:115–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhou J (2013) Health effects of air pollution. Bull Chin Acad Sci 3:371–337

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

The work was supported by National Social Science Foundation in China (No. 17BJL043), General Project of Shaanxi Soft Science Research Plan (No. 2019KRM157) and Major Theoretical and Practical Research Projects of Social Sciences in Shaanxi Province(No. 2019Z088).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Economics and Management, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, Shandong, China

    Jinkai Zhao & Na Zhou

  2. School of Economics and Finance, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China

    Wanping Yang, Qurat Ul Ain & Kai Zhao

Authors
  1. Jinkai Zhao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Wanping Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Na Zhou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Qurat Ul Ain
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Kai Zhao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jinkai Zhao.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Philippe Garrigues

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Zhao, J., Yang, W., Zhou, N. et al. Measurement and space-time evolution of health level under constraint of environmental pollution, China: 2002–2016. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 26725–26741 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08931-w

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08931-w

Keywords

Search

Navigation