Research On The Impact Of Environmental Pollution On Urban-rural Income Gap

The issue of environmental protection and income distribution has always been a hot topic in academic circles.Contrary to the rapid development of Chinese economy,the development of urban and rural areas is extremely unbalanced,and the problem of income inequality between urban and rural areas is very serious.Scholars have carried out a series of theoretical studies and empirical explorations on how to narrow the income gap between urban and rural areas,but the discussion on the topic of urban-rural income gap in the past was mostly confined to the economic field or social field.As environmental pollution becomes more and more prominent in recent years,more and more scholars begin to discuss the relationship between environmental pollution and urban-rural income gap from the perspective of environmental economics.Based on the general trend of urban-rural integrated development and high-quality development of social economy,it is of great practical significance to clarify the impact of environmental pollution on urban-rural income gap and clarify the transmission mechanism for giving consideration to social equity and environmental governance.Based on this,this paper will deeply explore the impact of environmental pollution level on urban-rural income gap in various provinces and cities.Based on previous relevant literature,this paper combined with the actual situation of China and followed the technical route of "question raising-literature sorting-theoretical basis-mechanism analysis-index construction-empirical test-research conclusion".Firstly,the intertemporal economic model is used to demonstrate the mechanism of environmental pollution affecting the income gap between urban and rural areas.Secondly,the entropy weight method was used to construct the environmental pollution composite index,the Theil index was used to measure the urban-rural income gap,and the two-way fixed effect model was used to empirically test the impact of environmental pollution on the urban-rural income gap.Finally,through the intermediary effect model,the paper demonstrates that health human capital is an important transmission mechanism of environmental pollution affecting urban-rural income gap.Based on the above studies,this paper draws the following conclusions:(1)The intertemporal economic model demonstrates that environmental pollution will exacerbate the urban-rural income gap through healthy human capital.(2)The baseline regression results show that environmental pollution will significantly exacerbate the income gap between urban and rural residents.After the robustness test using the alternative variable method,the positive effect still exists.The impact of environmental pollution on the urbanrural income gap shows significant regional and temporal heterogeneity.The results of regional heterogeneity test show that environmental pollution can aggravate the urbanrural income gap and the effect is strongest in the central region.The results of the period heterogeneity test show that environmental pollution has a significant positive relationship with the urban-rural income gap during 2003-2012,while environmental pollution has a weak negative impact on the urban-rural income gap during 2013-2018.(3)The results of the mediation effect model show that the health human capital is an important transmission mechanism of environmental pollution affecting the urban-rural income gap.According to the conclusions of this paper,the following suggestions are put forward for the collaborative governance of environmental pollution and urban-rural income distribution:Establish and improve the system of fair sharing of urban and rural environmental benefits,balance the cost of environmental pollution borne by urban residents and rural residents;The government should increase medical and health investment in rural areas and narrow the gap between urban and rural residents in human capital investment in health.We will implement green taxation policies to control environmental pollution at its source.