Study on the Relationship between Economic Growth and Water Pollution in Jiangxi Province—Based on ARDL Model

摘要

Identifying the key influencing factors of water pollution in Jiangxi Province is vital for formulating effective environmental protection measures. Jiangxi Province is located in the central of China. It plays a very important role in the “Rise of Central China” strategy. In recent years, water pollution in various regions of Jiangxi Province has become more and more serious. Therefore, exploring the main driving factors of water pollution in Jiangxi Province is of great practical significance. In this paper, the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach is used to study the long-term equilibrium and short-term dynamic adjustment relationship between economic growth and water pollution in cities of Jiangxi Province from 1998 to 2016. The results show that there is a long-term equilibrium relationship between the water pollution index and the actual GDP of the first type of cities. However, due to the difference in the form and parameters of model, the inverted “U-shaped” relationship of the water pollution index and the actual GDP is not always presented. The regional economic growth of the second type of urban areas leads to increase of pollutants. It is obvious that the deteriorating environment has increased people’s living costs and inhibited economic growth. The contradiction between economic development and environmental pollution in the third type of urban areas is most acute. Therefore, in order to effectively protect the environment, local governments should consider all these factors as well as regional heterogeneity in formulating policies.