Impact of Energy Consumption and Air Pollution on Economic Growth — An Empirical Study Based on Dynamic Spatial Durbin Model

Abstract

By constructing a dynamic spatial Durbin model based on C-D production function that includes energy consumption and air pollution, this paper explains the driving factors of urban economic output in the “2+26” cities of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and its surrounding areas during 2006-2015. The result shows the significant spatial autocorrelation of energy consumption and air pollution in the “2+26” cities. The increase in economic output of neighbouring cities will bring about economic radiation and promote the economic output of the city, which provides strong evidence for the necessity of joint prevention and control policy. Further considering effects of the inputs of neighbouring cities, the paper finds that the driving force of economic increase mainly came from the capital and energy input of the city itself, as well as the air pollution dividends of neighbouring cities. Therefore, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and its surrounding areas should make the best of the resource advantages of neighbouring cities to achieve complementarity and coordinated development. Governments should construct comprehensive cross-city air pollution prevention mechanism, such as regional air pollution compensation mechanism and fund for air pollution joint control.