Institute of Ecological Civilization Economy, School of Economics, Henan University, Kaifeng Henan, 475004, China.
School of Finance, Henan Finance University, Zhengzhou Henan, 450000, China.
PLoS One. 2023 Jul 28;18(7):e0289399. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289399. eCollection 2023.
It is known that the rapid progress of the Chinese economy is perceived to be aligned more towards increasing the economic quantity (GDP) rather than its quality primarily owing to a large amount of carbon emission, increased environmental pollution, and high resource consumption. However, such perception comes with no single evidence or study that compares growth rates between the quantity and quality of China's economic development. Such a comparative study could provide useful information to the Chinese government and concerned agencies to manage and promote sustainable economic development in China. Here we developed a comprehensive economic development quality evaluation indicator system to study China's progress on economic quality from 1978 to 2017 and compare it with GDP growth rates over the same period. Results indicate that during the period 1978-2017, China's economic development quality index has increased significantly, higher than the average annual growth rate of GDP during the same period. This higher growth rate of Chinese economic development quality could be attributed to the country's achievements in tackling environmental pollution, narrowing the income gap, promoting technological progress and innovation, improving economic efficiency, maintaining social stability, and improving social welfare. We suggest the world re-evaluate China's economic development achievement and growth patterns that can provide a reference for other developing countries.
众所周知，中国经济的快速发展被认为更多地是在提高经济数量（GDP），而不是质量，主要是因为大量的碳排放、环境污染加剧和资源消耗高。然而，这种观点并没有任何单一的证据或研究来比较中国经济发展的数量和质量增长率。这样的比较研究可以为中国政府和有关机构提供有用的信息，以管理和促进中国的可持续经济发展。在这里，我们开发了一个综合的经济发展质量评价指标体系，以研究中国从 1978 年到 2017 年的经济质量进步，并将其与同期 GDP 增长率进行比较。结果表明，在 1978-2017 年期间，中国的经济发展质量指数显著提高，高于同期 GDP 的平均年增长率。中国经济发展质量的这种较高增长率可归因于中国在解决环境污染、缩小收入差距、促进技术进步和创新、提高经济效率、保持社会稳定和改善社会福利方面取得的成就。我们建议世界重新评估中国的经济发展成就和增长模式，为其他发展中国家提供参考。
