Is there an inverted U-shaped curve? Empirical analysis of the Environmental Kuznets Curve in agrochemicals

doi:10.1007/s11783-014-0700-y

Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.

2016, Vol. 10

Issue (2) : 276-287 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-014-0700-y

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Is there an inverted U-shaped curve? Empirical analysis of the Environmental Kuznets Curve in agrochemicals

Fei LI¹,Suocheng DONG¹,Fujia LI²,Libiao YANG^3,^*(

)

1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
2. School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
3. Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China

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Abstract

As the largest contributor to water impairment, agriculture-related pollution has attracted the attention of scientists as well as policy makers, and quantitative information is being sought to focus and advance the policy debate. This study applies the panel unit root, heterogeneous panel cointegration, and panel-based dynamic ordinary least squares to investigate the Environmental Kuznets Curve on environmental issues resulting from use of agricultural synthetic fertilizer, pesticide, and film for 31 provincial economies in mainland China from 1989 to 2009. The empirical results indicate a positive long-run co-integrated relationship between the environmental index and real GDP per capita. This relationship takes on the inverted U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve, and the value of the turning point is approximately 10,000–13,000, 85,000–89,000 and over 160,000 CNY, for synthetic fertilizer nitrogen indicator, fertilizer phosphorus indicator and pesticide indicator, respectively. At present, China is subject to tremendous environmental pressure and should assign more importance to special agriculture-related environmental issues.

Keywords Environmental Kuznets Curve agrochemical China

Corresponding Author(s): Libiao YANG

Online First Date: 23 April 2014 Issue Date: 01 February 2016

Cite this article:

Libiao YANG,Fei LI,Suocheng DONG, et al. Is there an inverted U-shaped curve? Empirical analysis of the Environmental Kuznets Curve in agrochemicals[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2016, 10(2): 276-287.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-014-0700-y
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2016/V10/I2/276

Fig.1 Consumption of agricultural chemical fertilizer (a), pesticide and film (b) from 1989 to 2009 (Source: China Rural Statistical Yearbooks, various years)

Tab.1 Agriculture-related environmental indices and economic indices

		LLC ^a)	IPS ^b)	Fisher-ADF ^c)	Fisher-PP
GDP	individual effects	???7.68	??13.40	??3.87	???2.80
individual effects and linear trends	???8.81	???6.82	?15.79	??18.98
D ^d) (GDP)	individual effects	?−2.04^{** e)}	?−2.95***	112.86***	?156.37***
individual effects and linear trends	?−1.32*	?−1.72**	?87.89**	?143.22***
GAO	individual effects	???2.64	???8.20	?13.01	??13.47
individual effects and linear trends	???4.19	???3.03	?36.03	??35.49
D(GAO)	individual effects	?−3.32***	?−5.04***	127.30***	?272.48***
individual effects and linear trends	−10.24***	?−7.32***	169.21***	?216.52***
GDP²	individual effects	??11.25	??15.13	??1.17	???0.70
individual effects and linear trends	???8.86	???9.56	??5.44	??10.03
D(GDP²)	individual effects	?−1.68**	?−1.58**	?86.95**	?123.93***
individual effects and linear trends	?−1.69**	?−1.56**	?81.39**	?131.40***
GAO²	individual effects	???4.61	??10.27	??9.70	???9.59
individual effects and linear trends	???6.55	???4.96	?26.61	??28.68
D(GAO²)	individual effects	?−3.40***	?−4.62***	120.10***	?249.11***
individual effects and linear trends	?−9.68***	?−6.85***	160.41***	?206.32***
NS	individual effects	?−7.28***	?−2.51	?90.27	?141.31***
individual effects and linear trends	?−2.68**	???0.11	?60.91	??87.34
D(NS)	individual effects	−15.74***	−13.29***	291.53***	?711.24***
individual effects and linear trends	−14.95***	−10.20***	243.23***	?400.71***
PS	individual effects	?−8.45***	?−2.54	117.13	?177.57***
individual effects and linear trends	?−4.15***	?−0.50	?80.77	?110.71***
D(PS)	individual effects	?−6.47***	?−8.34***	208.61***	?442.82***
individual effects and linear trends	−12.15***	?−8.65***	219.30***	?356.07***
AP	individual effects	?−3.64***	?−0.12	?73.29	?187.91***
individual effects and linear trends	?−3.06***	?−1.28	?83.69	?136.49***
D(AP)	individual effects	−19.70***	−13.55***	357.32***	?516.35***
individual effects and linear trends	−19.96***	−12.83***	259.72***	?378.57***
AF	individual effects	?−4.20***	???0.07	?71.40	?124.85***
individual effects and linear trends	−10.08***	?−3.39	?80.81	?126.17***
D(AF)	individual effects	−24.61***	−14.46***	498.98***	1039.26***
individual effects and linear trends	−31.19***	−15.65***	216.96***	?361.91***

Tab.2 Panel unit root test results

Tab.3 Panel cointegration test results ^a)

Tab.4 Panel cointegration estimation results by OLS and DOLS

Fig.2 Inverted U-shaped EKC relationship simulation for NS (a), PS (b) and AP (c)

Fig.1 Fig.A The agrichemicals and economy relationship by year, such as chemical fertilizer (a- 1989, b- 1999, c- 2009), pesticide (d- 1989, e- 1999, f- 2009) and film (g- 1989, h- 1999, i- 2009)

Source: China Rural Statistical Yearbooks, various years

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