Promises and pitfalls in environmentally extended input-output analysis for China: a survey of the literature

As the largest developing economy, China plays a key role in global climate change. Environmentally extended input-output analysis (EE-IOA) is an important and insightful tool seeing widespread use in studying large-scale environmental impacts in China: calculating and analyzing greenhouse gas emissions, carbon and water footprints, pollution, and embedded energy. Chinese EE-IOA are hindered, however, by unreliable data and limited resolution. This paper reviews the body of literature regarding EE-IOA for China in peer-reviewed journals and provides an overview of the articles, examining their methodologies, environmental issues addressed, and data utilized. This paper further identifies the shortcomings in using input-output analyses to gauge environmental impacts in China. Potentially fruitful areas of expansion in Chinese EE-IOA research are denoted, including under-researched environmental issues, underutilized methodologies, and techniques to disaggregate data to move beyond the limitations inherent in official Chinese input-output data.