[Synergistic Effect of Location-oriented Industrial Policies on Pollution and Carbon Reduction].

Abstract

In the context of promoting the implementation of the manufacturing power and the construction of ecological civilization, clarifying the synergistic effect of location-oriented industrial policies in reducing pollution and carbon emissions is of practical importance. Based on panel data of 282 prefecture-level or above cities from 2006 to 2021 in China, this study used the "Made in China 2025" pilot demonstration city construction （referred to as "demonstration city construction"） as a quasi-natural experiment and used a difference-in-differences method to examine the impact effect, internal mechanism, and heterogeneity of location-oriented industrial policies on collaborative governance of pollution and carbon reduction and further explored the economic and social benefits generated by its collaborative governance effect. The results show that： ① Demonstration city construction resulted in an average annual reduction of 2.665×10^-3 μg·L^-1 and 3.510×10⁶ t of PM_2.5 concentration and CO₂ emissions, respectively, and an average annual increase of 0.027 units in the collaborative level of pollution and carbon reduction, forming a collaborative governance effect. This conclusion was still valid after endogeneity treatment and multiple rounds of robustness testing. ② The internal mechanism test revealed that demonstration city construction could promote collaborative governance of pollution and carbon reduction through the scale effect, technique effect, and composition effect. ③ Heterogeneity analysis showed that demonstration city construction could help central and western cities and non-resource-based cities achieve coordinated pollution and carbon reduction governance. Eastern cities only reduced carbon without controlling pollution, whereas resource-based cities only controlled pollution without reducing carbon and had not yet formed a collaborative governance effect. ④ Further research indicated that the collaborative effect of demonstration city construction in reducing pollution and carbon emissions could bring about economic and social benefits of approximately 120 905 billion yuan. The research showed the necessity to implement the concept of collaborative governance for pollution and carbon reduction, summarize the experience of pilot city construction, explore multidimensional driving paths for collaborative governance of urban pollution and carbon reduction, adapt to local conditions and times, and improve the design rules and implementation ideas of location-oriented industrial policies, which can accurately empower urban pollution and carbon reduction collaborative governance.