Environmental Status and Human Health: Evidence from China

In recent years, there have been growing concerns about the environment and its effect on human health. In this paper, we measure human health by mortality. Firstly, we use the method of deviation decomposition to investigate the different changes of mortality in eastern, central and western regions of China. Secondly, we study the linearity and nonlinearity between environmental status and mortality by semi–parametric additive panel model. Following is the primary conclusions obtained in the study: (1) There exists a big mortality gap among different regions; the gap is mainly dominated by the inter–regional difference; the mortality of the middle region increases heavily; the western region becomes a major source of mortality differences. (2) Mortality decreased with the increase of urban green area. On the other hand, the higher the environmental pollution index, the higher the mortality rate. (3) The environmental pollution index, urban green area, number of licensed (assistant) physicians per thousand and the per capita GDP can affect mortality in a nonlinear way.