Whether the Establishment of National High-Tech Zones Can Improve Urban Air Pollution: Empirical Evidence from Prefecture-Level Cities in China

Deya Hua and Jingfeng Hu ()
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Deya Hua: School of Economics, Anhui University, Hefei 230022, China
Jingfeng Hu: School of Economics, Anhui University, Hefei 230022, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-19

Abstract: Promoting the construction of national-level high-tech zones as green pioneer zones is a necessary condition for achieving high-quality development. Based on panel data from 254 prefecture-level cities from 2006 to 2018, in this paper, the difference-in-difference (DID) is used to empirically examine the influence effect of the establishment of national high-tech zones on local urban air pollution, and the spatial difference-in-difference (SDID) is used to explore its spatial spillover effect. It was found that the annual average P M 2.5 concentration in cities with national high-tech zones decreased by about 1.8% compared with cities without national high-tech zones, and there was a positive spillover effect on the annual average P M 2.5 concentration in nearby cities. Industrial structure upgrading and technological innovation effects are two important transmission paths for the establishment of national high-tech zones to influence urban air pollution; the heterogeneity analysis shows that the establishment of national high-tech zones has more significant implications for the improvement of air pollution in non-resource cities and less developed areas in the west, and the air pollution improvement effect of “growing” national high-tech zones is more desirable than that of “mature” national high-tech zones. Our empirical results conclude that we should continue to encourage the promotion of national high-tech zones, optimize the business environment, improve preferential policies, and design a combination of policy instruments scientifically according to local conditions in order to give full play to the effect of national high-tech zones on urban air-pollution improvement.

Keywords: national high-tech zone; air pollution; difference-in-difference model; spatial spillover effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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