Has processing trade made China's exports cleaner? A regional level analysis

Yuwan Duan and Bingqian Yan

Energy Economics, 2021, vol. 96, issue C

Abstract: This paper investigates the role of processing trade on China’s regional CO2 emission intensity of exports (EIE). We investigate the temporal changes in regional EIEs and their determinants from 2002 to 2012 by using special multi-regional input-output tables that distinguish the production of processing exports from other production at the regional level. By using structural decomposition analysis, we attribute the regional EIE changes into effects of very detailed components, which show the roles of different production types and factors in EIE changes. We find that EIE increased from 2002 to 2007 but decreased from 2007 to 2012. In this regard, processing exports play a decisive role in the first period, making China's exports dirtier, but help exports be cleaner after the crisis. By factor, the input structure reflected by the inter-industry production linkage is the main reason for the different performances of EIEs in the two periods. The interregional trade in intermediate inputs has increased most inland regions' EIEs while decreasing coastal regions' EIEs.

Keywords: Emission intensity; Processing exports; Structural decomposition analysis; Input-output table; CO2 emissions embodied in exports (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F18 F64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988321000554
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:96:y:2021:i:c:s0140988321000554

DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105150

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Economics is currently edited by R. S. J. Tol, Beng Ang, Lance Bachmeier, Perry Sadorsky, Ugur Soytas and J. P. Weyant

More articles in Energy Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().