A Regional Comparative Study On The Evolution Between Economic Growth And Environmental Quality In China

China has a vast territory. The Eastern, Central and Western region are three ladder distributions. Economic growth and environmental quality are significantly different in each region. So far, researches on the Environmental Kuznets Curve mainly focus on the Eastern coastal developed areas. The economic of Eastern region has developed early and rapidly. The ecological problems especially pollution problems are more serious. The Eastern region has relatively complete historical data. It is easy for the majority of scholars to study. As a major region to undertake industrial transfer from the Eastern coastal region, the Central region will inevitable undertake a number of backward industries which are more environmental pollution and energy consumption. The environmental problem may be even more serious in the future. The ecological environment of majority Western region is inherently vulnerable. It is an energy and raw material base for China. With the implementation of Western development policy, it is also facing a severe challenge of environment deterioration. Therefore, the issues on environmental quality and economic growth of three regions have great theoretical and practical significance.Firstly, this paper overviews the present status of economic development and environmental quality of the Eastern, Central and Western region. It finds that, since the 1990s, economic development level of the Eastern region was significantly higher than that in the Central and Western regions. The density of pollution of the Central region is greater than that of Western region. And the Western region is greater than that of Eastern region. Secondly, used panel data of environment and economy on China's 30 provinces during 1990 to 2006, based on EKC hypothesis, utilized panel unit root and panel cointegration methods, the relationship between three kinds of density of pollutants emission (waste water, waste gas and solid waste) and per capita GDP is studied. The long-run and stable EKC relationship exists. On this basis, the EKC model is built. The results show that majority evolution paths are an S-shaped or a U-shaped, expect that of waste gas density is inverted U-shaped in Eastern area. Evolution of environmental quality is particularity in different regions. Then, based on the related principle of economics, this paper deeply analyzes the reasons of the formation of curve, and explains these by empirical analysis. Not only there is the impact of economic growth on its environmental quality, but also exists the feedback effect of environmental changes on the economic growth. Finally, in the system of economic and environment, it formulates a two-equation simultaneous model to estimate the feedback effect between the environmental changes and the economic growth. The results show that economic growth and environmental quality have a significant interaction. Among other variables which impact on the environment, the industrial structure of the Eastern, Central and Western regions have significant positive effects on environmental pollution, and the impacts of others are uncertainly in different areas, which include population density, trade openness, technological progress and government policy.