The Relationship between Environmental Regulation, Industrial Transformation Change and Urban Low-Carbon Development: Evidence from 282 Cities in China

Kun Chen, Yinrong Chen (), Qingying Zhu and Min Liu
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Kun Chen: College of Public Administration, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430700, China
Yinrong Chen: College of Public Administration, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430700, China
Qingying Zhu: School of Public Administration, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China
Min Liu: College of Public Administration, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430700, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 19, 1-15

Abstract: Environmental regulation (ER) plays an important role in urban low-carbon development (ULCD). First of all, we evaluate the ULCD level of 282 cities in China from 2005 to 2020 by constructing an index group and entropy method. Two panel models are then used to test the spillover effects and threshold effects of ER and industrial structure on ULCD. The results show that the ULCD level of most cities is still in grade III (0.27–0.38) or IV (0.38–0.49), and the level of central-western cities is generally lower than that of eastern cities. Furthermore, the spillover effect of ER and industrial structure upgrading (UIS) on ULCD is positive in eastern cities (0.038) but opposite in central or western cities (−0.024). Further results show that the positive effects of optimization of industrial structure (OIS) and UIS are gradually increasing with the improvement of ER. However, the positive effects are more beneficial to the eastern cities. Therefore, the conclusions of this study can provide a decision-making reference for local government to comprehensively formulate environmental and industrial policies to enhance the low-carbon development of cities.

Keywords: urban low-carbon development; environmental regulation; industrial structure; optimization; upgrading; spatial panel Durbin model; panel threshold model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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