Quality of life and regional economic development: Evidence from China

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 19; no. 5; p. e0298389
• Main Authors: Cui, Yuhu, Tian, Hu, An, Dong, Jia, Yonghua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 16.05.2024; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Analysis; China; Cities; Cost of living; Developing countries; Economic Development; Economic growth; Economics; Engineering and Technology; Growth models; Heterogeneity; Humans; LDCs; Medicine and Health Sciences; Modernization; People and Places; Physical Sciences; Quality of Life; Quality standards; Regional development; Regression models; Research and Analysis Methods; Social Sciences; Social security; Standard of living; China; Singapore; United Kingdom > UK; Asia
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0298389

With the development of China's economy entering a new stage, the quality of life, which centers on the well-being of residents, provides an essential hand in promoting the transformation of the regional economy from high-speed development to high-quality development. Based on a panel threshold regression model, we examine in this paper whether quality of life helps regional economies realize developmental convergence. The research shows that: (1) The quality of life overall can promote regional economic development and passes the series test with relatively robust results. (2) The quality of life has a non-linear effect on regional economic growth, which is mainly manifested in the fact that the impact is more significant in regions with higher levels of quality of life and weaker in regions with lagging quality of life and may widen the gap between regions at the same time. (3) We categorize the study regions to test further regional heterogeneity based on regional location and development status. At the Quality of Life Level-I regions, their influence on economic development has a more substantial pulling effect. Therefore, each region should seize the strategic opportunity to improve the quality of life, focus on the balanced development of the quality of life, strengthen policy support and social security, and strive to promote the coordinated development of China's regional economy.