School of Finance and Economics, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, People's Republic of China.
Division of Management and Administrative Sciences, UE Business School, University of Education Lahore, Pakistan.
PLoS One. 2023 Feb 24;18(2):e0282109. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0282109. eCollection 2023.
Low-carbon pilot policies are an important way to achieve the goal of "peak carbon neutrality" and are of great significance to China's international commitments. Based on a sample of 282 prefecture-level cities from 2006 to 2020, this paper investigates the impact of low-carbon pilot policies on urban carbon efficiency using a quasi-natural experiment with three batches of low-carbon pilot cities in 2010, 2012, and 2017, respectively. It is found that: (1) low-carbon pilot cities can improve urban carbon emission efficiency, which is still valid after a series of robustness tests such as the parallel trend test, placebo test, PSM-DID, and counterfactual test; (2) low-carbon pilot cities can enhance urban carbon emission efficiency by promoting the level of urban innovation and advanced urban industrial structure; and (3) the impact of low-carbon pilot policies on urban carbon emission efficiency is heterogeneous across cities with different geographical locations, population sizes, and resource endowment types. The findings provide policy insights for the promotion of low-carbon pilot policies and strengthening the construction of low-carbon pilot cities.
低碳试点政策是实现“碳达峰碳中和”目标的重要途径，对中国的国际承诺具有重要意义。本文基于 2006 年至 2020 年的 282 个地级市样本，利用 2010 年、2012 年和 2017 年三批低碳试点城市的准自然实验，考察了低碳试点政策对城市碳效率的影响。结果表明：（1）低碳试点城市能够提高城市碳排放效率，在平行趋势检验、安慰剂检验、PSM-DID 和反事实检验等一系列稳健性检验后仍然有效；（2）低碳试点城市可以通过提高城市创新水平和先进城市产业结构来提高城市碳排放效率；（3）低碳试点政策对城市碳排放效率的影响在地理位置、人口规模和资源禀赋类型不同的城市之间存在异质性。研究结果为推广低碳试点政策和加强低碳试点城市建设提供了政策启示。
