Impact of New and Old Driving Force Conversion on Air Quality: Empirical Analysis Based on RDD

Yan Zhu, Hongfeng Zhang and Xu He ()
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Yan Zhu: School of Public Administration and Policy, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan 250014, China
Hongfeng Zhang: School of Public Administration and Policy, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan 250014, China
Xu He: School of Economics, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan 250014, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-12

Abstract: This paper evaluates the impact of the conversion of new and old driving forces of economic growth on air quality. Based on the policy shock of the establishment of the Shandong pilot zone, this paper took the monthly air quality index (AQI) as a measurement indicator and adopted the Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) method. It was found that the conversion of new and old driving forces significantly improved air quality, and this effect was still robust for different bandwidths. The examination of individual pollutants revealed that the improvement in air quality (AQI) came mainly from the reduction in the levels of five pollutants in the air: PM 2.5 , PM 10 , SO 2 , CO, and NO 2 . Moreover, through the convergence analysis, it was found that the air pollution governance effect of the conversion of new and old driving forces had significant β convergence characteristics. The convergence characteristics were still robust even considering control variables and spatial factors, thus indicating that the conversion of new and old driving forces had a synergistic governance effect on air pollution control.

Keywords: conversion of new and old driving forces in economic growth; pilot zone; regression discontinuity; convergence analysis (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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