Unbalanced PM2.5 emission and happiness effect through cross-regional trade in China

Cross-regional trade and environmental impact are intricately linked. While the PM2.5 emissions embodied in trade has been discussed previously, an integrated analysis of how cross-regional trade reallocate PM2.5 emission flows and further impact residents' happiness has, to date, rarely been explored. Based on emission inventory and multiregional input-output model, the production-, consumption-, and income-based PM2.5 emissions were estimated, combined with PM2.5 Gini coefficient the regional PM2.5 emissions inequalities as well as the happiness effect were investigated. The results show that 49.6% and 28.1% of the PM2.5 emissions were driven by final demands and primary inputs of other provinces, which would displace local residents' happiness effect from the final consumers. The PM2.5 Gini coefficient for consumption-based emission was lower than that for production- and income-based emission, indicating the inequality of regional distribution of PM2.5 emissions in China has been exacerbated by production- and income-based accounting. We found that for every one-unit increase in the consumption-based PM2.5 emission was associated with a 0.037 and 0.072 decrease in happiness and depression index, respectively. The higher-income north provinces with high levels of PM2.5 footprint had a significant negative impact on both happiness and depression sentiment due to much higher resource intensities. Those results were partly attributed to the variation of economic structure and further highlight the critical role of consumption-based measurement in evaluating unbalanced PM2.5 emissions and sentiment impacts, promoting final consumers share environmental responsibility by tracing their transferred air pollution. •Cross-regional trade reallocate PM2.5 emissions and impact residents' sentiment.•Final demand and primary input were responsible for 49.6% and 28.1% of PM2.5 emission in 2015.•Happiness and depression sentiment score decrease due to PM2.5 emission transfers.•The heterogeneity of economic structure exacerbates environmental and social inequality.•Policy for reducing air pollution and improving wellbeing should consider trade activity