An Research On The Relationship Between Wage Gap And Environmental Quality

As the largest developing country,China is known for its nonnegligible migration of agricultural labor force during the process of economic development.Since the Chinese economic reform,the income gap has experienced a long-term expansion stage.At the same time,the environmental degradation has become increasingly severe.Based on this reality,we decided to discuss the relationship of income gap and environment,and whether the labor transfer can be a transmission mechanism between them.Theoretical research is based on the Harris-Todaro model,where the labor force is divided into two parts based on their skill level.The whole economy contains three parts:the rural part,the primary sector and the senior sector.With the introduction of an environment function,we conduct our mathematical analysis which finds out that the extensive wage gap between rural-urban laborforce will jeopardize environmental quality,while the wage gap between skilled-unskilled laborforce has an uncertain impact on environment.Empirical research focuses on the direct and indirect impacts the wage gap has on the environment.Using the data of 31 provinces during 19 years,we found out that two types of wage gap both have a direct impact on the environment.In the meantime,the impact wage gap between urban and rural areas has on environment can be conducted through labor transfer,while the other one can't.Based on the results above,we put forward a couple of political suggestions to help achieve the goal of sustainable development,which include promoting "inclusive growth",setting up the labor flow guiding mechanism,maintaining the appropriate level of urbanization and the forming long-term mechanism of pollution.the relevant policy recommendations.