Impact of haze pollution and human capital on economic resilience: evidence from prefecture-level cities in China

As cities suffer from frequent pollution events and massive population gathering in cities, haze pollution and human capital exert a significant influence on economic resilience. Thus it is significant to thoroughly investigate city economic resilience for the sound development of the city economy and enhance economic resilience. Based on the data from 239 cities in China from 2005 to 2017, this paper uses the OLS model to study the impact of haze on economic resilience. The findings reveal that haze pollution significantly reduces economic resilience. Also, there is a significant negative correlation between haze pollution and economic resilience in the East and Middle areas, while there is an adverse nexus in the West. Human capital has a positive role in promoting economic resilience, and this role is the strongest in the Middle area and the weakest in the West area. Moreover, human capital positively moderates haze pollution and economic resilience in Full sample, and East and Middle sample sets, while insignificant in the West sample set. Considering the possible endogeneity of the model, the robustness of the above results is tested using System GMM two-step and 2SLS methods. From the perspective of haze pollution, this study deeply excavates the short board factors affecting economic resilience. It regards human capital as an essential variable to repair the weak links of the economy and enhance economic resilience, which is conducive to improving the anti-risk ability of China's economy under the background of the gradual intensification of the contradiction between environmental pollution and economic growth.