Whether Low-Carbon City Pilot Policy can Promote the Transition to a Green Lifestyle? Evidence from China

Abstract

To analyze the effect of low-carbon city pilot policies on green lifestyle and the difference of their impact. Based on 2006–2019 China’s 276 prefecture level panel data, the multi-period differential model, two-stage mediating effect model and dynamic spatial Dubin model was used to verify the transmission mechanism of low-carbon city pilot policy on the level of green living standard. Research findings: 1) Low-carbon city pilot policies significantly improve the green living standard, and can reduce the carbon emission intensity by 5.9% on average. Driven by technological innovation, low-carbon city pilot policies mainly reduce domestic carbon emission intensity by improving the production efficiency of enterprises, optimizing the industrial structure and reducing domestic energy consumption. 2) There are differences in the impact paths among different regions. For example, in Northeast China, leveraging green innovation can reduce energy consumption for daily life, while in southern regions, it can facilitate green transportation and optimize industrial structure. 3) Low-carbon city pilot policies are more effective in promoting emission reduction in Northeast, Central and North China and large cities, however, the emission reduction effect will increase first and then decrease with the expansion of the city scale. 4) The carbon emission in the surrounding area and the local area in the previous period will affect the green living standard of the pilot area, but the pilot policy has no spatial spillover effect on the surrounding area.

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