Does Regional Integration Improve Carbon Emission
Performance?—A Quasi-Natural Experiment on Regional
Integration in the Yangtze River Economic Belt
Kunpeng Ai * and Ning Xu
School of Political Science and Public Administration, Henan Normal University,Xinxiang 453007, China
Abstract:Carbon emission performance (CEP) comprehensively considers the four-dimensionalfactors of “carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and growth” and constitutes akey indicator for low-carbon and high-quality development. Although some studies have previouslyexplored the relationship between regional integration and carbon emissions from different perspectives,it remains unclear how regional integration affects carbon emission performance. This articleregards the regional integration construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt as a quasi-naturalexperiment and uses the difference-in-difference (DID) model to empirically examine the mechanismsbehind regional integration and their impact on carbon emission performance. The results showthat regional integration significantly promotes improvements in carbon emission performance,primarily through three transmission mechanisms: resource factor allocation, economies of scale, andgreen innovation. It can also promote improvements in carbon emission performance in high-levelcarbon emission performance cities, middle- and downstream cities, non-natural-resource-orientedcities, and non-riverside cities. This article provides theoretical and empirical evidence that can beutilized to promote China’s high-quality, low-carbon transformation through regional integrationconstruction in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.
Keywords:regional integration; carbon emission performance; DID model; Yangtze RiverEconomic Belt
（政治与公共管理学院李广宇）
