Coastal Service Industry, Industrial Structure Optimization and Environmental Governance: An Empirical Analysis Based on Chinese Coastal Cities

Abstract

Wu, S.; Zhou, Y., and Yan, W., 2020. Coastal service industry, industrial structure optimization and environmental governance: An empirical analysis based on Chinese coastal cities. In: Wan, Z. (ed.), Coordinated Sustainable Development in Coastal Areas: Environment and Economy. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 109, pp. 114–120. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.This paper analyzes the relationship between industrial structure transformation and pollutant emission changes in 86 cities in coastal areas of China from 2013 to 2017 and proves whether the optimization of the industrial structure of the service sector can play a positive role in restraining environmental pollution. The empirical results show that when the industrial structure or economic activity structure of the city changes towards the service industry, the pollution of the whole city will be restrained and the environmental quality will be improved. It is believed that the optimization of service structure can restrain the scale of pollution, mainly because the optimization of the service industry reflects the positive effect of industrial agglomeration on environmental quality and environmental quality. The optimization of the service industry can promote the technological progress and diffusion of industrial economic activities through the agglomeration of industry, and provide the possibility for the concentration of environmental protection production technology and pollution treatment facilities. Besides, the optimization of the service industry can produce knowledge spillover between enterprises through cooperative agglomeration and improve the current situation of environmental pollution by improving the effect of technological innovation level of enterprises.