The impact of the pilot program on industrial structure upgrading in low-carbon cities

Abstract

Abstract The pilot program of low-carbon cities is of great significance for China’s overall economic and social development. The construction of low-carbon cities contributes to adjusting the industrial structure, optimizing the energy structure and accelerating institutional reforms. Using the panel data of 285 prefecture-level cities during 2006–2015, this paper takes the pilot program of low-carbon cities as a quasi-natural experiment to detect the impact of the pilot program on industrial structure upgrading and its possible mechanism. The results reveal that the construction of low-carbon cities displays a positive impact on industrial structure supererogation while it has little effect on industrial structure rationalization. Ventilation coefficient is regarded as an instrumental variable to address endogenous problems. The conclusions are still tenable after a series of robustness tests. Mechanism analysis shows that the pilot program can bolster industrial structure supererogation via technological innovation and the reduction of the proportion of high-carbon industries. The regional heterogeneity analysis indicates that the influence of the pilot program on the industrial structure supererogation in the central and western areas is more positive than that in the eastern area, whereas the impact of the pilot program on the industrial structure rationalization is not significant in the three areas. The heterogeneity analysis of environmental law enforcement indicates that the pilot program can more obviously bump up the industrial structure supererogation in cities with strong law enforcement intensity. The impact on the industrial structure rationalization is not evident in cities with weak law enforcement intensity, but the industrial structure rationalization is significantly improved in cities with strong law enforcement intensity. This paper provides insights for realizing the integrated development of low-carbon cities and industrial structure upgrading.