An Empirical Analysis of Jiangxi Province’s Financial Development, Economic Growth, and Environmental Pollution

Abstract

Since the reform and opening up in 1978, the economic development in China has experienced a rapid growth stage. Statistics show that annual GDP has grown at an average rate of nearly 10%, and the annual per capita GDP growth rate has also approached 9%. With the rapid economic growth, the problem of environmental pollution across the country has become increasingly serious, and the environmental quality has been deteriorating, which has attracted the attention of many parties in the whole society. The relationship between economic growth and environmental quality has become a hot issue in various fields. First of all, this article introduces basic concepts such as economic development, environmental quality, environmental Kuznets curve, and the relationship between economic development and environmental quality. Afterwards, it analyzes the current situation of Jiangxi Province’s economy and environment from the aspects of Jiangxi Province’s economic aggregate, industrial structure, development mode, overall law of environmental quality, and industrial waste release. Secondly, this study constructs the evaluation index system of the economic and environmental relationship in Jiangxi Province and uses the principal component analysis method to screen the primary economic and environmental indicators, providing evaluation criteria for the establishment of the economic development and environmental quality relationship model of Jiangxi Province. Third, the relationship between the main economic environment indicators after the principal component analysis is simulated, and the EKC model of Jiangxi Province is established. The research results show that the environmental Kuznets curve in Jiangxi Province is not all the typical inverted U shape in developed countries, that is, environmental pollution does not necessarily show a trend of first rising and then falling with the increase of per capita income, but it appears as N-shaped, half of the inverted U shape, and even repeated fluctuations.