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Green growth and environmental sustainability in China: the role of environmental taxes

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Abstract

This study aims to investigate the impact of environmental-related taxes on green growth and CO2 emissions in China covering the time 1996–2019. To get the short- and long-run estimates, we have applied the bounds testing approach. Estimates of the study provide some important results. In the short run, environmental taxes and environmental policy stringency estimates are negatively significant in the CO2 emissions models and positively significant in the green growth models. Likewise, the long-run estimates attached to environmental taxes are significantly negative in the basic and robust CO2 emissions models while insignificant in the green growth models. However, the long-run estimates of environmental policy stringency are significantly negative in the basic and robust CO2 emissions models and significantly positive in the basic and robust green growth models. In general, our findings imply that an increase in environment-related taxes and strictness in environmental policies help reduce CO2 emissions and promote green growth in China.

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Data availability

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

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics and Management, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, 266580, China

    Lei Yu & Xinwei Gao

  2. China Petroleum Engineering & Construction Corp. North China Company, Hebei, 062552, China

    Junjie Lyu

  3. China Oil & Gas Pipeline Network Corp. (PipeChina) Oil & Gas Control Center, Beijing, 100013, China

    Yao Feng

  4. Business School, Linyi University, Shandong, 276000, China

    Shuliang Zhang

  5. Department of Economics, Federal Urdu University, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Zubaria Andlib

Authors
  1. Lei Yu
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  2. Xinwei Gao
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  3. Junjie Lyu
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  4. Yao Feng
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  5. Shuliang Zhang
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  6. Zubaria Andlib
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Contributions

This idea was given by Lei Yu. Lei Yu, Xinwei Gao, Junjie Lyu, and Yao Feng analyzed the data and wrote the complete paper. Shuliang Zhang and Zubaria Andlib read and approved the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zubaria Andlib.

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Yu, L., Gao, X., Lyu, J. et al. Green growth and environmental sustainability in China: the role of environmental taxes. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 22702–22711 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23355-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23355-4

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