Wu Jing, Guo Qing
School of Finance, Harbin University of Commerce, Harbin, China.
PLoS One. 2025 Jan 7;20(1):e0310636. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0310636. eCollection 2025.
Environmental pollution has become a global concern, so it is critical to find out the elements that influence it. Is the urban business credit environment influencing urban environmental conditions? The study takes the entropy method for calculating the environmental pollution index of 276 prefecture-level cities across China from 2010 to 2021, the CE1 index to describe the urban business credit environment, and a spatial Durbin model to empirically analyze the mechanism and transmission path of the urban business credit environment on environmental pollution. The findings demonstrate that: (1) there is an important positive spatial association between China's urban pollution index and urban business credit index, and that the level of spatial clustering of the two is increasing over time. (2) the urban business credit environment and environmental pollution have an inverted "U" shape relationship and a significant spatial spillover effect, which means that once a certain threshold is reached, improving the urban business credit environment reduces environmental pollution in local and neighboring areas. (3) The influence of the urban business credit environment on environmental deterioration varies by region. The extra heterogeneity test results for the different regions show that the relationship between business credit level and environmental pollution is consistent with the overall situation in the eastern and western regions, the opposite effect was observed in the central region. (4) Changes in the urban business credit environment have an indirect impact on environmental conditions due to the amount of regional financial development and technological innovation potential. To reduce pollution in the region, prefectural-level cities must strengthen the construction of urban business credit systems, strive to create a favorable business credit environment, strengthen the spatial spillover effect, and guide the resource elements of business credit planning to flow into the central and western parts of China reasonably. The study's findings have significant practical implications for modifying the government's development strategy and improving the urban environment.
环境污染已成为全球关注的问题，因此找出影响它的因素至关重要。城市商业信用环境是否会影响城市环境状况？该研究采用熵值法计算2010年至2021年中国276个地级市的环境污染指数，用CE1指数描述城市商业信用环境，并运用空间杜宾模型实证分析城市商业信用环境对环境污染的作用机制和传导路径。研究结果表明：（1）中国城市污染指数与城市商业信用指数之间存在重要的正空间关联，且两者的空间集聚水平随时间不断提高。（2）城市商业信用环境与环境污染呈倒“U”形关系且具有显著的空间溢出效应，这意味着一旦达到一定阈值，改善城市商业信用环境会减少本地及周边地区的环境污染。（3）城市商业信用环境对环境恶化的影响因地区而异。不同地区的额外异质性检验结果表明，商业信用水平与环境污染之间的关系在东部和西部地区与整体情况一致，而在中部地区则观察到相反的效果。（4）城市商业信用环境的变化因区域金融发展水平和技术创新潜力而对环境状况产生间接影响。为减少区域污染，地级市必须加强城市商业信用体系建设，努力营造良好的商业信用环境，增强空间溢出效应，并引导商业信用规划的资源要素合理流入中国中西部地区。该研究结果对调整政府发展战略和改善城市环境具有重要的现实意义。
