Impact of Rural Industrial Integration on Rural Air Quality: Evidence from Prefecture-Level Cities in China

Haodong Luo, Youtian Fan () and Xuefeng Hu
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Haodong Luo: Department of Systems Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China
Youtian Fan: The School of Economics, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Chongqing 401120, China
Xuefeng Hu: School of Public Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 611130, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 16, 1-21

Abstract: In China, the sustainable development of rural areas is of great significance to sustainable development. Especially with the acceleration of rural industrial integration in China, its environmental impact not only affects the resilience of rural areas but also affects the regional environment. According to the multiple and different dimensions of the impact of rural industrial integration on rural ecosystems, this research focuses on prefecture-level cities in China, utilizing regional economic and environmental data from 2014 to 2023. To analyze the impact of rural industrial integration on rural air quality using the entropy method, a rural industrial integration index was constructed, and the fixed effects model was used to analyze the findings. The results showed that a 0.01 increase in the rural industrial integration index will result in a decrease of 1.335% in the AQI index of an entire prefecture-level city, with empirical validation of the moderating effects of greening, rural waste treatment, and the mediating effects of infrastructure development. The study found that rural industrial integration and air quality levels in mainland China’s prefecture-level cities exhibited a steady upward trend.

Keywords: rural industrial integration; rural air quality; rural greening effect; rural waste treatment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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