Are there industrial SO2 convergences in China's prefecture-level cities? New evidence from a spatial econometric perspective. Issue 3 (May 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Nan, Yongqing; Li, Qin; Cai, Haiya; Qin, Zhou
• Is Part Of: Energy & environment. Volume 31:Issue 3(2020)
• Page Start: 440
• Page End: 460
• Publication Date: 2020-05
• Subjects: Sulfur dioxide emissions -- convergence -- panel data -- spatial effect -- Chinese prefecture-level city; Power resources -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Power resources -- Periodicals; Renewable energy sources -- Periodicals; Energy policy -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Ressources énergétiques; Politique énergétique; Energy policy -- Environmental aspects; Power resources; Power resources -- Environmental aspects; Renewable energy sources; Periodicals; 333.7
• DOI: 10.1177/0958305X19869390
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0958-305X

Abstract

As the world's largest emitter of sulfur dioxide, China is facing mounting domestic and international pressures to tackle the increasingly serious atmospheric pollution. Convergence is an important inherent characteristic of sulfur dioxide discharge. This study examines the convergence of per capita sulfur dioxide emissions across 280 Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2016. Due to the spatial autocorrelation of air pollutants, conventional estimation methods for β convergence ignore the spatial effects and produce biased results. Consequently, spatial econometric models with different weight matrices are employed to control for spatial effects. The empirical results indicate that per capita sulfur dioxide emissions exhibit both absolute β convergence and conditional β convergence, and spatial effect and other socioeconomic factors accelerate the convergence speed. In addition, this study verifies the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis between sulfur dioxide and gross domestic product. The results highlight the importance of regional cooperation and coordination when formulating environmental and industrial policies.