Carbon emissions from the perspective of regional competition: evidence from China’s low-carbon city policy

Global warming poses a prominent challenge to every country. As one of the largest developing countries, China has experienced rapid economic transformation in its pursuit of sustainable development. This paper delves into a quasi-natural environmental experiment conducted in China, specifically foc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Annals of regional science 2024-08, Vol.73 (2), p.467-491
Main Authors: Chen, Meng-Ting, Zhang, Shiyan, Zhang, Jiakai
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Carbon
Carbon content
Carbon dioxide
Cities
Climate change
Competition
Developing countries
Economic development
Economic growth
Economic performance
Economics
Economics and Finance
Efficiency
Emission standards
Emissions
Environmental Economics
Environmental impact
Environmental policy
Geography
Global warming
Hypotheses
Investments
Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning
LDCs
Local government
Microeconomics
Regional development
Regional/Spatial Science
Regions
Renewable resources
Spatial analysis
Special Issue Paper
Spillover effect
Sustainable development
Transformation
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Summary:Global warming poses a prominent challenge to every country. As one of the largest developing countries, China has experienced rapid economic transformation in its pursuit of sustainable development. This paper delves into a quasi-natural environmental experiment conducted in China, specifically focusing on the low-carbon city program initiated in 2010. Our study uncovers the phenomenon of regional competition among Chinese local governments with regard to carbon emissions, which in turn generates spillover effects stemming from the policy. To identify the effects of the low-carbon city policy on both economic and environmental development, we employ the spatial difference-in-differences approach. Our analysis suggests that reductions in carbon emissions in the pilot cities will lead to a decrease in carbon emissions and economic performance in the surrounding areas. Finally, by exploring firm-level data, we find that the policy significantly impacts large private firms operating in non-secondary industries.
ISSN:0570-1864
1432-0592
DOI:10.1007/s00168-023-01255-w