Does China’s National Demonstration Eco-Industrial Park Reduce Carbon Dioxide and Sulfur Dioxide—A Study Based on the Upgrading and Transformation Process

Kairui Cao, Laiqun Jin (), Yuanyuan Zhu, Zilong Nie and Hao Li
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Kairui Cao: Business School, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
Laiqun Jin: Business School, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
Yuanyuan Zhu: Faculty of Foreign Languages, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
Zilong Nie: Business School, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
Hao Li: Business School, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China

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

Abstract: With the increasingly serious environmental problems, coordinating the relationship between the environment and economic development has become a crucial task for developing countries, especially China. This paper studies the role of eco-industrial parks (EIPs) in the emissions of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide in China with the difference-in-difference (DID) approach by focusing on the entire process of EIPs’ establishment—upgrading provincial development zones (DZs) to national DZs and then transforming national DZs into EIPs. Besides, we examined the heterogeneous effect of the different transformations from national economic and technological development zones (ETZs) or national high-tech zones (HTZs) to EIPs. In addition, we studied the spatial spillover effects of EIPs and their paths with the spatial difference-in-difference (SDID) method. The results show that neither provincial DZs nor national DZs can significantly reduce sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide emissions. Only when national DZs are transformed into EIPs can they be reduced significantly. However, the different transformations from the HTZs and ETZs to EIPs have different effects on emissions. Moreover, EIPs have technology spillovers and demonstration effects on surrounding areas. Therefore, EIPs can reduce emissions in the surrounding areas. The results indicate that, in order to achieve high-quality development and coordinate the relationship between environment and economic development, we should take positive steps to promote the transformation of DZs into EIPs.

Keywords: eco-industrial parks; environmental pollution; upgrading and transformation of development zones (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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