Impact of R&D technology spillovers on carbon emissions between China’s regions

Abstract

The increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is the main reason of global warming, and the effect of technology progress on CO2 emissions reduction has attracted more and more attention. This paper constructs an inter-provincial R&D spillover network based on geographic economic distance matrix, and measures the centrality index of each province using the social network analysis method. Regarding inter-provincial R&D direct technology spillovers effect (DS) and indirect technology spillovers effect (IS) as the proxy variables of technology progress, DS and IS are introduced into a panel econometric model for CO2 emissions factor analysis. The panel data of 29 provinces in China from 2000 to 2013 are used for empirical analysis. The results show that DS has a significant inhibitory effect on CO2 emissions in nationwide, eastern and central regions, except in western region. The role of IS on CO2 emissions varies widely in sub-regions. Specifically, IS has a significant inhibitory effect on CO2 emissions in central region, IS measured by closeness and betweenness is significantly positively correlated with CO2 emissions in western region, while IS has no significant effect on CO2 emissions in eastern region.