Zhao Bin, Wang Ke-Liang, Xu Ru-Yu
School of Economics, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266011, Shandong, China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 Mar;30(13):39210-39222. doi: 10.1007/s11356-022-24971-w. Epub 2023 Jan 4.
The debate over the role of fiscal decentralization and industrial structure upgrading in China's environmental governance has received increasing attention. Based on China's provincial panel data from 2003 to 2019, this paper investigates the impact of fiscal decentralization and industrial structure upgrading on carbon emissions to provide empirical evidence for the above theoretical argument. The results show that fiscal decentralization and industrial structure upgrading are negatively correlated with carbon emissions, while the interaction term for fiscal decentralization with industrial structure upgrading presents a facilitating effect on carbon emissions. Besides, fiscal decentralization, industrial structure upgrading, and the interaction term have significant regional heterogeneity on carbon emissions. When fiscal decentralization and industrial structure upgrading are taken as threshold variables, the effects of industrial structure upgrading and fiscal decentralization are significantly nonlinear. Moreover, environmental regulation, transportation infrastructure, and carbon emissions are positively correlated. There exists an inverted U-shaped relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth, which proves environmental Kuznets curve theorem. However, FDI and urbanization have no significant effect on carbon emissions. According to the above conclusions, it is necessary to strengthen the positive interaction between fiscal decentralization and industrial structure upgrading in mitigating carbon emissions, promoting the green and low-carbon transformation of China's economy, thus realizing the goals of "carbon peak" and "carbon neutrality."
关于财政分权和产业结构升级在中国环境治理中的作用之争已受到越来越多的关注。基于2003年至2019年中国省级面板数据，本文研究财政分权和产业结构升级对碳排放的影响，为上述理论观点提供实证依据。结果表明，财政分权和产业结构升级与碳排放呈负相关，而财政分权与产业结构升级的交互项对碳排放呈现促进作用。此外，财政分权、产业结构升级及其交互项对碳排放具有显著的区域异质性。当以财政分权和产业结构升级为门槛变量时，产业结构升级和财政分权的影响具有显著的非线性。而且，环境规制、交通基础设施与碳排放呈正相关。碳排放与经济增长之间存在倒U型关系，这证明了环境库兹涅茨曲线定理。然而，外商直接投资和城市化对碳排放没有显著影响。根据上述结论，有必要加强财政分权与产业结构升级在减缓碳排放方面的正向互动，推动中国经济绿色低碳转型，从而实现“碳达峰”和“碳中和”目标。
