Monocentricity or polycentricity? The study on the enterprise environmental performance of urban spatial structure

Zhe Huo, Yuping Shang, Silu Zhou, Meixia Meng, Daniel Balsalobre Lorente and Xiaowei Ma

Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, 2025, vol. 30, issue 4, 1416-1446

Abstract: Under the promotion of urban planning and land development policies, the urban spatial structure of China is undergoing a transformation towards polycentricity. The improvement of environmental performance during the process of urban spatial transformation is crucial for urban sustainable development. This paper uses high-resolution population grid data from LandScan for the years 2001–2019 to measure the urban spatial structure of Chinese cities. Then we match the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database with the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Pollution Emission Database for the years 2001–2014. This paper empirically examines the impact and mechanisms of the polycentric spatial structure of Chinese cities on enterprise pollution reduction at the micro-level. The findings indicate that compared to monocentricity, polycentricity is more conducive to improving enterprise environmental performance. Mechanism tests demonstrate that the improvement in enterprise environmental performance resulting from polycentricity can be achieved through three channels: increasing urban population and density, mitigating urban environmental pollution, and promoting enterprise innovation ability. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that polycentricity is more beneficial for emission reduction among small enterprises, young enterprises and enterprises in regions with higher environmental regulations. This paper provides micro-level evidence and policy implications for further strengthening the aggregation effect of polycentricity and improving enterprise environmental performance in the future.We quantify urban spatial structure using Landscan data in China.Polycentricity is conductive to the enterprise emission reduction of so2.Polycentricity reduces enterprise emission by improving population scale and density.Reliving urban pollution, improving enterprise innovation are also mechanisms.Polycentricity is common in the southeast, southwest and northeast cities of China.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13547860.2024.2370152 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:taf:rjapxx:v:30:y:2025:i:4:p:1416-1446

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rjap20

DOI: 10.1080/13547860.2024.2370152

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy is currently edited by Leong Liew

More articles in Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().