Recently, the joint paper Industrial Pollution Agglomeration Effect Driven by Regional Integration: Evidence from Boundary Effects and Expansion Impacts in the Yangtze River Delta by Associate Professor Fan Meiting from the Department of Resource and Environmental Economics, School of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, has been officially published in Journal of Management Sciences in China, a top Class A domestic economics journal in China.
Abstract
Whether regional integration can deliver environmental improvement matters for the coordinated implementation of China’s strategies for coordinated regional development and ecological civilization construction. This paper matches firm-level pollution data to city-level records and adopts regression discontinuity design together with difference-in-differences. From the two dimensions of boundary effects and expansion impacts of the Yangtze River Delta, it is the first dedicated investigation into the industrial pollution agglomeration effect of China’s regional integration, and identifies heterogeneous impacts between original member cities and newly incorporated cities. Furthermore, this paper empirically tests the mechanisms behind the industrial pollution agglomeration effect induced by Yangtze River Delta expansion from the perspectives of economic agglomeration and industrial division of labor. The study finds that there exists a distinct discontinuity in industrial pollution agglomeration across the boundaries of the Yangtze River Delta, namely a positive boundary effect of industrial pollution agglomeration. The expansion of the Yangtze River Delta significantly restrains industrial pollution agglomeration within the region, and such restraining effect varies across city types. Specifically, the inhibitory effects of Yangtze River Delta expansion on chemical oxygen demand and sulfur dioxide pollution agglomeration are markedly stronger in original cities than in newly added cities. Mechanism analysis shows that economic agglomeration promotes industrial pollution agglomeration. Yet Yangtze River Delta expansion reduces regional economic agglomeration, thereby curbing industrial pollution concentration. Deepened industrial specialization within the Yangtze River Delta also intensifies industrial pollution agglomeration, while regional expansion mitigates pollution agglomeration by restraining excessive industrial specialization.
Fan Meiting is Associate Professor at the School of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. Her main research interests cover energy economics and environmental policy, urban and regional sustainable development. Her publications appear in journals including Management World, Journal of Management Sciences in China, World Development and Energy Economics. She has received academic honors such as the Second Prize of the National Excellent Fiscal Theory Research Award, the Second Prize of Shanghai Philosophy and Social Sciences Outstanding Achievement Award, and the Excellent Paper Award of Management World (2022). She presides over multiple research projects including the General Program and Youth Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
