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Does haze pollution aggravate urban–rural income gap? Evidence from 283 prefecture-level cities in China

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Abstract

Urban–rural income gap and haze pollution concerns are remained at top priority to achieve sustainable development objectives in China. Based on the panel data of 283 cities in China from 2008 to 2018, the quantile regression model is used to study the impact of haze pollution on the urban–rural income gap. In addition, we adopt ventilation coefficients as the instrumental variable of haze pollution to control for potential endogeneity. Findings obtained from the quantile regression estimator suggest that haze pollution can significantly increase the urban–rural income gap. The effect of haze pollution on urban–rural income gap is more significant in the low quantile than the high quantile state. After alleviating endogenous bias through instrumental variables, the promotion effect is more obvious. Furthermore, haze pollution affects the urban–rural income gap through healthy human capital. Our results shed new light on the relationship between haze pollution and urban–rural income gap and provide support for policymakers in tackling the dual tasks of urban–rural income gap and haze pollution. A less haze pollution, our findings suggest, may exert positive effects in relation to the mitigation of urban–rural income gap in China.

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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We also would like to thank the anonymous referees for their helpful suggestions and corrections on the earlier draft of our paper, upon which we have improved the content.

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (72174195).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics and Management, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Ming Zhang & Lujing Wang

  2. Center for Environmental Management and Economics Policy Research, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Ming Zhang & Lujing Wang

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  1. Ming Zhang
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Ming Zhang: methodology.

Lujing Wang: writing—original draft.

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Correspondence to Ming Zhang.

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Table A1 Summary of selected previous studies on the relationship between income inequality and environmental degradation
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Zhang, M., Wang, L. Does haze pollution aggravate urban–rural income gap? Evidence from 283 prefecture-level cities in China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 55902–55915 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19555-7

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