TY  - JOUR
AU  - Zheng,Siqi
AU  - Wang,Rui
AU  - Glaeser,Edward L.
AU  - Kahn,Matthew E.
TI  - The Greenness of China: Household Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Urban Development
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15621
PY  - 2009
Y2  - December 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15621
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15621.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Siqi Zheng
Institute of Real Estate Studies
Department of Construction Management
Tsinghua University
Beijing 100084, P. R. China
Tel: 8610-62772734
Fax: 8610-62788678
E-Mail: zhengsiqi@tsinghua.edu.cn

Rui Wang
3250 School of Public Affairs Building
UCLA Department of Urban Planning
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1656
E-Mail: ruiwang@ucla.edu

Edward L. Glaeser
Department of Economics
315A Littauer Center
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-0575
Fax: 617/495-7730
E-Mail: eglaeser@harvard.edu

Matthew E. Kahn
UCLA Institute of the Environment
Department of Economics
Department of Public Policy
Anderson School of Management
UCLA Law School, Box 951496
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1496
Tel: 310/794-4904
Fax: 310/825-9663
E-Mail: mkahn@ioe.ucla.edu
AB  - China urbanization is associated with both increases in per-capita income and greenhouse gas emissions.  This paper uses micro data to rank 74 major Chinese cities with respect to their household carbon footprint. We find that the “greenest” cities based on this criterion are Huaian and Suqian while the “dirtiest” cities are Daqing and Mudanjiang. Even in the dirtiest city (Daqing), a standardized household produces only one-fifth of that in America’s greenest city (San Diego). We find that the average January temperature is strongly negatively correlated with a city’s household carbon footprint, which suggests that current regional economic development policies that bolster the growth of China’s northeastern cities are likely to increase emissions.  We use our city specific income elasticity estimates to predict the growth of carbon emissions in China’s cities.
ER  -