Discussion Paper
No. 2017-62 | September 20, 2017
Honglei Niu and William Lekse
Carbon emission effect of urbanization at regional level: empirical evidence from China
(Published in The Sustainable Development Goals—Assessing interlinkages, trade-offs and synergies for policy design)

Abstract

Historically, global urbanization has been an essential ingredient for national economic growth and beneficial social transformation. However, with the global urban population currently generating two-thirds of all carbon emissions, global policymakers are urging mayors and regional leaders to make difficult decisions to reduce the negative impacts of urbanization on the environment. The authors begin their examination of the implications of local and regional factors by applying the Dynamic Spatial Durbin Panel Model to empirically examine aspects of developing low-carbon strategies for the rapidly expanding size and number of the world’s urban areas. Their results indicate that the contribution of urbanization to carbon emissions can be positively affected when regional policy makers collaborate to focus on spillover effects to simultaneously manage the scope, diversity, and complexity of economic and environmental issues from the perspective of creating a balance between rapid urbanization and relevant regional factors. Regional leaders can make a difference by creating both short-term goals and long-term strategies for maintaining low-carbon urbanization, nurturing regional coordination, monitoring and managing eco-friendly regional spillover effects, supporting low-carbon technology innovations, and maintaining optimal city size.

Data Set

JEL Classification:

Q51, R11

Links

Cite As

[Please cite the corresponding journal article] Honglei Niu and William Lekse (2017). Carbon emission effect of urbanization at regional level: empirical evidence from China. Economics Discussion Papers, No 2017-62, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. http://www.economics-ejournal.org/economics/discussionpapers/2017-62


Comments and Questions



Anonymous - Invited Reader Comment
October 11, 2017 - 09:54
see attached file

Honglei Niu - Thanks for your valuable comments!
October 31, 2017 - 08:10
Thanks a lot for your valuable comments on our paper. We mainly agree with your opinions. Because of the space constraint, I didn't expatiate the two points you mentioned in considerable detail. Since it is necessary, we can add more content of them.

Anonymous - Invited Reader Comment
October 16, 2017 - 10:53
see attached file

Honglei Niu - Your comments are very valuable for us!
October 31, 2017 - 08:15
Thanks for your approbation for our paper, and your comments are very valuable for us. We agree with your views. We will analyze more deeply on underlying policy implications from the results, and introduce more earlier work on spillover effects and applied spatial models in the paper.

Anonymous - Referee Report 1
October 26, 2017 - 09:13
see attached file

Honglei Niu - My Reply
November 12, 2017 - 16:00
Thanks a lot for your report, which is very detailed.

Honglei Niu - The other replies
November 18, 2017 - 14:40
Hi! There are the other replies to your comments.

Honglei Niu - The other replies
November 18, 2017 - 14:43
Hi! There are the other replies to your comments.