Economic Benefits and Environmental Costs of China's Exports: A Comparison with the USA Based on Network Analysis

This paper decomposes economic benefits (value-added) and environmental costs (CO₂) of exports according to their sources, and maps the global value network (GVN) and the global emissions network (GEN) for China's exports during 1995–2009 from national, sectoral and national–sectoral perspectives. A comparison is conducted between China and the USA. National GVN and GEN show that shares of value-added and CO₂ emissions from China in its GVN and GEN both decreased first then increased after 2006, while shares from the USA in its GVN and GEN generally decreased. Sectoral GVN and GEN show that among China's exports, “electrical and optical equipment” and “electricity, gas and water supply” were, respectively, the sectors that obtained the most value-added and emitted the most CO₂. National–sectoral GVN and GEN for China exhibited reciprocal and disassortative patterns, and in-strengths and out-strengths of GVN and GEN for China's exports were mainly captured by several domestic country–sector pairs.