Whether Openness and Inclusiveness Exacerbates Urban Pollution: Evidence from China

Abstract

In the context of economic globalization and social integration, the openness of the economy and the inclusiveness of the population play key roles in the development of regions and cities. Based on panel data from 259 prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2013, the present study explored whether openness and inclusiveness exacerbated the level of urban pollution. The research constructed econometric models and found significant spatial autocorrelations for three pollutant emissions. Economic openness had an inverted U-shaped effect on the discharge of industrial wastewater but an inhibitory effect on the emission of industrial sulfur dioxide and industrial smoke. Population inclusiveness also significantly reduced the emission of these three pollutants. The present study showed that openness and inclusiveness did not exacerbate pollution but contributed to an improvement in the urban environment, which provided important guidance for pollution control and development planning in cities.