Environmental Kuznets curve for pollutants emissions in China's textile industry: an empirical investigation

This study investigates the relationships between pollutants emissions and economic growth in China's textile industry for the period 1992-2007. Four kinds of pollutants emissions (i.e. carbon dioxide emissions, sulphur dioxide emissions, waste gas emissions and wastewater discharges) are focused on. In particular, the study aims at testing whether relationship between pollutants emissions and value-added of industry, as depicted in environmental Kuznets curve, holds in the long run or not. By employing unit root tests and Johansen method of co-integration, the results provide support for a unique and inverted N-shaped relationship between each pollutant emissions and economic growth of China's textile industry. Indeed, there were two turning points for each EKC-pollutant model. The results also indicate that China's textile industry has been making progress on pollutants reduction through structural adjustment and technologies improvement.