Industrial transfer, socioeconomic development and environment: an empirical analysis of China : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Lincoln University

Abstract

Since 2000 the central government of China has followed a policy of moving industries from Eastern provinces to Central and Western provinces. The primary goal of this policy is to decrease economic disparity within the country, and cross-regional industrial transfer has become a significant driving force in achieving economic growth for inland China. However, in most cases, industrial transfer has resulted in the degradation of the environment. This situation increases the external costs for the economic development of the inland regions and influences the environmental quality, which has been the main obstacle to regional sustainable development. This thesis provides an impact analysis of the industrial transfer on the social economy, the environment and sustainable development for the transfer-in provinces. It is an important basis for rationally guiding industrial transfer in the interior regions and scientifically formulating industrial transfer policies as the basis for maintaining sustainable regional development. To investigate the impacts of industrial transfer, spatial empirical models are applied to examine the effect of industrial transfer on socioeconomic performance, and the environmental outcome. A coupling coordination degree and a three-dimension model are designed to explore the impact of industrial transfer on sustainable regional development. This study used provincial-level panel data covering 2000-2015. The results show that industrial transfer is beneficial to promote the development of recipient provinces and increasing the disposable income of local residents. However, the industrial transfer did not decrease the relative income disparities between the recipient provinces and the wealthier eastern region. On the other side, industrial transfer increased the total amount of pollution emissions, for example, waste gas, wastewater, and solid waste (three wastes). Industrial transfer can increase industrial pollution. However, after the eleventh Five-Year plan, some main pollutants, such as chemical oxygen demand (COD) and sulphur dioxide (SO2)experienced a major decline. The empirical results showed that industrial transfer had not resulted in an increase in the main industrial pollutants. Moreover, the industrial transfer had not an apparent effect on expanding of environmental disparity between recipient provinces and the eastern region. Through the analysis of the relationship between industrial transfer, socioeconomic development, and environmental quality, increasing the industrial transfer can improve sustainable regional development. However, for the remote areas, such as Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Qinghai, the environmental quality declined significantly with the industrial transfer. Considering all the effects of industrial transfer, a key of the research was to understand the impact of the industrial transfer policy. The promotion of industrial transfer for the sustainable development of a region needs to move from increasing quantity to improving the quality of the industrial transfer. In vigorously introducing industrial transfer, it is clear that attention also needs to be paid to the protection of environmental quality to achieve the sustainable development of the regions receiving the industrial transfer.