Urbanization level, industrial structure adjustment and spatial effect of urban haze pollution: Evidence from China's Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration

Abstract

In order to explore an effective way to control haze pollution in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, this paper takes 26 cities in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration as the research object, adopts an improved spatial lag model and panel data from 2000 to 2020, the variables, models and data are tested, the test is carried out to empirically study the impact of urbanization level and industrial structure adjustment on the degree of haze pollution in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration. The main contribution of this paper is to improve the spatial lag model and find the special impact of explanatory variables on haze pollution. It is found that the haze pollution of urban agglomeration in the Yangtze River Delta is positively correlated with the level of urbanization, negatively correlated with the adjustment of industrial structure, and positively correlated with the square of industrial structure adjustment. It can be seen that the control of haze pollution can only rely on improving the quality of urbanization and reducing the degree of industrialization. However, as the degree of industrialization is reduced to a certain extent, the degree of pollution impact will reverse. Therefore, in addition, in order to maximize the effectiveness of haze pollution control in urban agglomerations in the Yangtze River Delta, it is necessary also to fully consider the comprehensive and synergistic effects of factors such as the degree of economic development, the degree of opening to the outside world, population density.