A spatial economics perspective on convergence research of carbon emissions performance in China

A spatial economics perspective on convergence research of carbon emissions performance in China

Jianzhou Tu Dalai Ma 

School of Economics and Business Administration, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China

School of Management, Chongqing University of Technology, Chongqing 400054, China

Corresponding Author Email: 
madalai@163.com
Page: 
962-972
|
DOI: 
https://doi.org/10.18280/ijht.360324
Received: 
18 March 2018
| |
Accepted: 
1 July 2018
| | Citation

OPEN ACCESS

Abstract: 

With the goal of expeditiously attaining strong efficiency in energy use, this paper constructs a function of carbon emissions performance to measure the carbon emissions performance on a provincial level from 1998 to 2016 in China. With panel data from 30 provinces, a spatial panel data model is established to test the convergence on carbon emissions performance in China. The results showed that the average carbon emissions performance in eastern coastal provinces was clearly higher than that of inland provinces during the sample period. Seen by regions, there was a steady upward trend of carbon emissions performance in eastern, central, and western China, while carbon emissions performance in eastern China was higher than that in central and western China. According to Moran’s I indexes, there is a strong spatial correlation and obvious cluster tendency in regional carbon emissions performance. LISA shows that spatial dependence of carbon emissions performance exists in most provinces in China, but the spatial difference exists in only a few provinces. The addition of spatial effect revealed that there were both absolute β convergence and conditional β convergence in regional carbon emissions performance from 1998 to 2016. Convergence of carbon emissions performance is significantly influenced by factors such as economic scale, industrial structure, governmental intervention, energy structure, and technological advancements. The influence of FDI on carbon emissions performance was insignificant.

Keywords: 

carbon emissions performance, convergence, spatial economics, China

1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
3. Research Methods
4. Assessment on Carbon Dioxide Emission Performance and Analysis on Spatial Correlation
5. Indicators and Data Sources
6. Empirical Results and Explanation
7. Conclusions
Acknowledgements

This paper was supported Humanities and social science research project of Chongqing Social Science Planning Project (No.2017BS34) and Chongqing Municipal Education Commission (No. 17SKG146).

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