Empirical Study On The Impact Of Government Size On Environmental Pollution

In China,environmental quality has been greatly improved after persistent efforts in decades.However,today’s environment is a little far from a dreamful one.To make dream true,we must do more.As a main manager of public goods,the government should be responsible for controlling and eliminating pollution.According to previous researches,the government size has some links to pollution.On the one hand,decision bias caused by unbalanced structure of governmental spending or low efficiency caused by behaviors of governmental staffs may make the government deliberately or unintentionally neglect the environmental quality.As the result,the environment is worse.On the other hand,the bigger the government size,the more abundant financial capital and the better expenditure functions the government has.So,the government has better ability to reduce pollution and to protect the environment under its jurisdiction.Especially in recent years,China stresses great importance to the environment.The focus on economic benefits in the past time has been replaced by the focus on ecologic benefits.What’s more,ecologic indicators have been gradually added to the assessment system of political promotion.To sum up,exploring the impact of the government size on pollution helps to judge the efficiency of the government size and the implementation effect of jobs for protecting the environment.Also,the research results may support to make correct decisions under the changing trend and situation.At first,the article defines the concepts and the measurements about the government size as well as environmental pollution.Then,the article clarifies and summarizes the current trend about the government size and environmental pollution at home and abroad.Next,the article uses panel data in China between 2007 to 2017 to study systematically the impact of the government size on environmental pollution.The government size is mainly measured by the amount of governmental spending and the number of governmental staffs.The results show that there is a significant relationship between the government size and environmental pollution.What’s more,the significant relationship can also be gotten from more specific data.This research shows that the governmental size is positively correlated to environmental pollution in eastern and central areas.But the government size is negatively correlated to environmental pollution in the western area.Further,the financial gap and its interaction item with the government size are added to the research model.And the gap is a lagging value.The research shows that the financial gap is significantly related to environmental pollution.What’s more,the financial gap can strengthen the negative impact of the government expenditure on the environment.Finally,based on the above researches,the article gives some recommendations about the governmental size and environmental pollution.Firstly,to relate the change of the government size with the development of the multi-target welfare goal.Secondly,to increase the expenditures for protecting the environment and to optimize the structure of fiscal expenditures and governmental staffs.Finally,to promote local governments the responsibility for protecting the environment.