Difference analysis of the relationship between household per capita income, per capita expenditure and per capita CO2 emissions in China: 1997-2014

Driven by the buoyancy of economy and continuous improvement of people's living standards, residential sector has gradually become the second largest CO2 emissions source in China. Reducing the fast rising rate of CO2 emissions in this sector is essential for realizing the target of carbon emission mitigation in China. The researches on the driving factors of residential CO2 emissions have attracted scholars' attention recently, yet few studies can interpret the causality relationship between household per capita income-expenditure-CO2 emissions at national and regional levels. Based on econometric techniques and a panel data set, this paper presents an investigation of the causality relationship, which combines household per capita income, per capita expenditure and per capita CO2 emissions (hereafter referred to as PI, PE, and CE, respectively) on a national level and within three regions (namely, eastern, central, and western regions of China) from 1997 to 2014. Urban and rural areas are considered as well. The empirical results manifest a varied causality relationship in different regions. For example, PI and PE correspond to CE in eastern rural area, but this phenomenon does not occur in central rural area. In addition, urban and rural differences are displayed. There is no causality between PI and PE in western urban area, while a bidirectional causal relationship emerges in PI and PE for western rural area. Finally, this study proposes some policy implications to decrease the increase rate of household CO2 emissions in China. Copyright (C) 2016 Turkish National Committee for Air Pollution Research and Control. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.