Environmental and Economic Sustainability of Urban Agglomeration Under Resource-Conserving and Environmentally Friendly Policy: Evidence from China

Meiyu Jing, Hailong Ju, Yu Wang and Chen Li ()
Additional contact information
Meiyu Jing: Business School, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin 541004, China
Hailong Ju: Business School, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin 541004, China
Yu Wang: Business School, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin 541004, China
Chen Li: Business School, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin 541004, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 16, 1-20

Abstract: Environmental policy helps policymakers and researchers understand the process and expected effects of policy before the policies are fully implemented. This study aims to estimate the effects of resource-conserving and environmentally friendly policy implemented in the Wuhan metropolitan area and Changsha–Zhuzhou–Xiangtan urban agglomeration. The synthetic control method is employed as an estimation method. The results show that policy has positive impacts on economic development and SO 2 emission reduction in the pilot regions but cannot improve wastewater treatment. Compared to large cities, medium-sized and small cities are more sensitive to policies since the large cities have transferred a large number of enterprises with high energy consumption and high emissions to the surrounding medium-sized and small cities. The study also finds that the Wuhan metropolitan area reduces pollution emissions through increasing environmental investment and the efficiency of resource allocation. In the Changsha–Zhuzhou–Xiangtan urban agglomeration, policy triggers green technology innovation to improve the environment and boost the economy.

Keywords: resource-conserving and environmentally friendly policy; urban agglomeration; economic development; SO 2 emissions; wastewater treatment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/16/7537/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/16/7537/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:16:p:7537-:d:1728930

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().