Can environmental regulation promote urban green innovation Efficiency? An empirical study based on Chinese cities

We analyze the mechanism for industrial co-agglomeration in Chinese 283 cities to affect haze pollution from 2003 to 2016 and examine the possible mediating effects of urbanization and energy structure between haze pollution and industrial co-agglomeration, finally obtaining the following results. First, industrial co-agglomeration and haze pollution across China, including central and eastern regions keep a typical inverted U-shaped curve relationship. That is, industrial co-agglomeration first promotes haze pollution and then restrains it. However, the impact of industrial co-agglomeration on haze pollution in western China is still on the left side of the inverted U-shaped curve, reflecting a promotion effect. Second, industrial co-agglomeration has a significant spatial spillover effect on haze pollution. Additionally, industrial co-agglomeration can promote haze pollution in local regions but inhibit it in surrounding regions in both the short and long run. In contrast, when the industrial co-agglomeration index exceeds the inflection point (3.6531), it benefits the reduction of haze pollution in local regions, while not being conducive to it in the neighboring regions. Third, industrial co-agglomeration can affect haze pollution through urbanization and energy structure, that is, urbanization and energy structure play an intermediary role between them.

Section: Spatial Weight Matrixmentioning

confidence: 95%

Can Industrial Collaborative Agglomeration Reduce Haze Pollution? City-Level Empirical Evidence from China

Ye²,

2021

“…Research on urbanization and its problems in various countries provides useful references for understanding the general laws of urban development, but the issue of urbanization in China requires special attention due to its own characteristics. China’s research on urbanization and its problems mainly focus on environmental pollution [ 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 ], traffic congestion [ 38 , 39 ], or spatial economic differences [ 40 , 41 ], whereas analysis of public health emergencies in cities is insufficient. The current research on COVID-19 in China has mostly analyzed the evolution of the epidemic, or discussed its economic impact at a macro level, but has not studied its impact from the perspective of urbanization.…”

Section: Literature Review and Theoretical Elaborationmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19, Urbanization Pattern and Economic Recovery: An Analysis of Hubei, China

Yang

Wang

Zhang

et al. 2020

Self Cite

In the context of the rapid development of urbanization and increasing population mobility in China, the outbreak of COVID-19 has had a significant impact on China’s economy and society. This article uses China UnionPay transaction data and takes Hubei, the worst-hit region by COVID-19 in China, as an example, to conduct empirical analysis using the generalized method of moments (GMM) of the impact of current urbanization patterns on the spread of the epidemic and economic recovery from the perspectives of time, industry, and regional differences. The study found that during the different stages of COVID-19, including discovery, outbreak, and subsidence, the overall impact of urbanization on the economy in Hubei Province was first positive, then became negative, and finally gradually increased. This process had significant industrial and urban heterogeneity, which was mainly manifested in losses in tourism and catering industries that were significantly greater than those in the audio-visual entertainment and digital office industries. Similarly, the recovery speed of large cities was lower than that of small and medium-sized cities. The main reason for these differences is that the one-sided problem of urbanization is more obvious in areas with higher urbanization rates. COVID-19 has drawn attention to the development of urbanization in the future, that is, the development path of one-sided economic resource agglomeration and scale expansion should be abandoned, with greater attention paid to the improvement of service functions and the development of amenities. This transformation is necessary to enhance urban economic resilience and reduce public health risks.

“…The proxy variable of performance-based environmental regulation involves the removal rate of main pollutant contaminants [ 37 ]. This paper uses the performance-based environmental regulation composite index to represent environmental regulation [ 38 , 39 ]. Three positive indicators, namely the city sewage treatment rate, the comprehensive utilization rate of industrial solid wastes and the proportion of days with good air quality, are used to construct environmental regulation.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Spatial Interaction Effect of Environmental Regulation on Urban Innovation Capacity: Empirical Evidence from China

Zhou

Yun-sheng

Xin-cai

2021

This paper applies a spatial econometric model to measure the impact of environmental regulation on urban innovation capacity from a spatial interaction perspective by using panel data from 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration from 2009 to 2018. The study findings are as follows: first, environmental regulation has a significant positive impact on urban innovation capacity and a significant positive spatial spillover effect; second, innovation capacity has significant positive spatial dependence; third, city informatization level, government expenditures on science and technology, city economic scale, and industrial development level all positively affect the innovation capacity of neighboring cities and all have positive spatial spillover effects on the innovation capacity of neighboring cities; and finally, city expansion reduces the innovation capacity of a city and has negative spatial spillover effects on the innovation capacity of neighboring cities.