Industrial activity and the environment in China: An industry-level analysis

Given China's rapid industrial expansion a detailed understanding of the linkages through which industrial activity affects the environment is crucial if the resultant environmental impact is to be minimised. This paper utilises a dataset of Chinese industry specific emissions for a variety of pollutants between 1997 and 2003 to provide the first study of its kind for China. We find an industry's emissions to be a positive function of its energy use and human capital intensity and a negative function of its productivity and R&D expenditure. We also investigate the role played by environmental regulations, both formal and informal.