Research On The Relationship Between Economic Growth And Environmental Quality Of China Under The Perspective Of Social Capital

Through the reform and opening up, Chinese economy obtained the rapid development, but the extensive and resource dependent mode of economic growth brought serious environmental pollution problems. Environmental problems seriously affect the quality of life of our citizens, more and more scholars pay attention to the relationship between economic growth and environmental quality.Environmental kuznets curve reflects an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic growth and environmental pollution, in other words, when the level of economic development of a country is relatively low, the level of environmental pollution aggravated with the growth of economy; when economic development reaches a certain level, which reaches a critical point, with continued economic growth, environmental pollution from high to low, the degree of environmental pollution gradually reduces. This thesis verifies the existence of EKC curve between economic growth and environmental quality of China, and study China at which stage of EKC.Social capital has become the focus of research and hotspot with its powerful ability, and it has been used in various fields of social sciences. After emphasize physical capital, human capital, intellectual capital successively, economists look "social capital" as a source of growth also. This thesis will introduce social capital into EKC model to study the influence of social capital on the EKC curve, investigate whether social capital can make turning point of EKC curve come sooner.Firstly, the thesis verities the existence of the inverted U-shaped curve between economic growth and environment quality by empirical analysis through 2003 to 2012 panel data of 31 regions of China. The results show that there are inverted U-shaped curve relationship between the four types pollutants waste water discharge, industrial waste gas discharge, sulfur dioxide emissions, industrial solid waste discharge and GDP of provinces; their respective turning points are 15.8230, 10.9218, 8.5806, 10.9907. Comparison with the logarithmic of gross production provinces, results show that most area of our country is in the stage of increasing pollution. Then introduce social capital traffic communication expense and the amount of private car into EKC model, discover that traffic communication expense can reduce pollution emission, causing EKC curve to the left and leading to the early arrival of the turning point; and because the amount of private car includes others meanings, it is impossible to judge its influence on the EKC curve.