Abstract
This study investigates the different impacts of coordinated development in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region on industrial energy and pollution intensities based on the difference-in-difference (DID) method and the quantile DID method. The panel data cover industrial energy consumption and three wastes, which are industrial wastewater, sulfur dioxide, and dust emissions, from all 13 cities in the BTH region and 17 cities in Henan Province for the period 2007–2017. The study finds that China’s BTH coordinated development strategy, on average, tends to restrain regional industrial energy intensity, especially in lower quantile level (0.1–0.4) cities. However, it tends to promote industrial energy intensity in higher quantile level (0.7–0.9) cities. The impacts on pollution intensities vary among industrial wastewater, sulfur dioxide, and dust emissions. The results suggest that, in addition to paying attention to dust pollution caused by transportation integration in the BTH region, China should also pay more attention to green relocation of industries from Beijing to Hebei and strengthen coordinated environmental regulation while maintaining corporate interests.
Highlights
Industrial pollution is one of the world’s most serious environmental problems
This paper is different from previous studies: first, this study investigates the comprehensive impact of the BTH coordinate development strategy on industrial energy and pollution intensities and the estimation results are robust based on a number of statistical tests; second, it applies the quantile DID method to evaluate the heterogeneous impact of the strategy on industrial energy intensity in the BTH region at different quantile levels of industrial energy intensity; and third, it uses the data of industrial energy pollutions to estimate the different impacts of the strategy on the environment among different energy pollution sources
Urbanization is defined as the proportion of urban population in the total population and is denoted as UR [37], the industrial structure is defined as the ratio of service industrial value-added over GDP and is denoted as SER [38], per capita GDP is the natural logarithm itself and is denoted as PGDP [39], foreign direct investment (FDI) is defined as the share of FDI stock over GDP and is denoted as FDI/GDP [40], and R&D is defined as the share of the R&D expenditure over GDP and is denoted as RD [41]
Summary
Industrial pollution is one of the world’s most serious environmental problems. In China, industries are the largest source of pollution, especially for air contamination. The Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region is China’s “capital economic circle”, including Beijing, Tianjin, and 11 prefecture-level cities of Hebei province It is one of the three major urban agglomerations and has the strongest industrial base in China, accounting for about 2% of the national land area, 10% of the national GDP, and 8% of the total population. It investigates the comprehensive impact of the BTH coordinate development strategy on industrial energy and pollution intensities, and the estimation results are robust based on a number of statistical tests. The impacts of the BTH coordinated development strategy on the environment vary among three industrial energy-related pollution sources including wastewater, sulfur dioxide, and dust emissions.
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