How the Pilot Low-Carbon City Policy Promotes Urban Green Innovation: Based on Temporal-Spatial Dual Perspectives

Xianghua Yue; Shikuan Zhao; Xin Ding; Long Xin

doi:10.3390/ijerph20010561

How the Pilot Low-Carbon City Policy Promotes Urban Green Innovation: Based on Temporal-Spatial Dual Perspectives

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Dec 29;20(1):561. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20010561.

Authors

Xianghua Yue¹, Shikuan Zhao², Xin Ding³, Long Xin⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Economics and Management, Xiangnan University, Chenzhou 423000, China.
² School of Public Policy and Administration, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China.
³ School of Finance, Capital University of Economics and Business, Beijing 100070, China.
⁴ School of Economics and Management, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830046, China.

Abstract

Enhancing green innovation levels is an important objective of the pilot low-carbon city policy (PLCC) in China, but the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of the PLCC policy's effect on green innovation is unclear. Based on panel data from 285 Chinese cities during 2005-2020, this paper assesses the impact of PLCC on regional green innovation using the difference-in-difference (DID) method. The empirical results demonstrate that the PLCC can obviously promote urban green innovation. In terms of the temporal dimension, the policy effect of PLCC on regional green innovation shows an inverted "U" shape and peaks in the seventh year after implementation. From the spatial dimension, the PLCC can promote surrounding cities' green innovation through spatial spillover effects within 200 km, and the spillover effect decreases with increasing distance. Mechanism analysis indicates that the PLCC policy can promote regional green innovation by enhancing regional environmental regulations and alleviating financing constraints. This paper explores the temporal and spatial policy effects of PLCC, which can provide effective paths and policy recommendations for China to achieve its "dual carbon" goals.

Keywords: difference-in-difference; green innovation; intermediary mechanism; pilot low-carbon city policy; temporal-spatial heterogeneity.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Carbon*
China
Cities
Economic Development
Humans
Policy

Substances

Carbon

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the Key Project of Scientific Research of Hunan Provincial Education Department (NO. 21A0531) and the Graduate Research and Innovation Foundation of Chongqing, China (NO. CYB21056).