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Impact of the opening of high-speed rail on environmental pollution in the Yangtze River Economic Belt: Promoting or inhibiting?

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Abstract

In response to climate change and energy conservation and emission reduction targets, the green development of transportation has become one of the most concerned topics in the world. Many studies have verified the impact of intra-city rail on environmental pollution, but little attention has been paid to the environmental effects of inter-city railway. This paper based on data on 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2003 to 2018 takes high-speed rail as a “quasi-natural experiment” and conducts empirical tests on the emissions reduction effect, impact mechanism, and spatial spillover effect of high-speed rail using a multi-phase difference-in-difference model, a mediating effect model, and a spatial difference-in-difference model. The findings are as follows. (1) High-speed rail is conducive to reduction in environmental pollution in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and as the opening time of the high-speed rail continues, the emission reduction effect of the high-speed rail is gradually increasing. (2) High-speed rail has a more significant inhibiting impact on environmental pollution in cities in the upper and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and cities listed in the “two control areas.” (3) Industrial upgrading and human capital accumulation form an important transmission mechanism for high-speed rail to achieve emissions reduction. (4) High-speed rail has a significant positive spatial spillover effect, which aggravates the level of environmental pollution in the surrounding areas of cities along the route.

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The data are available from authors upon request.

Notes

  1. China State Railway Group (www.china-railway.com.cn).

  2. https://www.12306.cn/index/.

  3. The upper reaches of the YREB include Yunnan Province, Guizhou Province, Sichuan Province, and Chongqing Municipality; middle reaches include Hunan Province, Hubei Province, and Jiangsu Province; lower reaches include Anhui Province, Zhejiang Province, Jiangsu Province, and Shanghai.

Abbreviations

HSR:

High-speed rail

YREB:

Yangtze River Economic Belt

DID:

Difference-in-difference

SDID:

Spatial difference-in-difference

FDI:

Foreign direct investment

HL:

Rationalization of the industrial structure

PSM–DID:

Propensity score matching–difference-in-difference.

SUTVA:

Stable unit treatment value assumption

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our editor and anonymous reviewer(s) for their valuable comments. This research is funded by the National Social Science Fund in the late stage of the project "Study on the Emission Reduction Effect of environmental decentralization from the perspective of River Chief System" (19FJLB004); Research on the Major Issues of high-quality Integrated Development in the Yangtze River Delta: Study on the Long-term Mechanism of Environmental Governance in the Yangtze River Delta Based on Environmental Decentralization (AHSKC2019D02). The Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (71934005). The General Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (71773051). The National Social Science Foundation of China (21BJL102).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics, Anhui University of Finance and Economics, Bengbu, 233000, People’s Republic of China

    Q. Li & A. Dong

  2. School of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, No.1 Weigang Road, Nanjing, 210095, People’s Republic of China

    B. Zhang

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  1. Q. Li
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  2. A. Dong
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Li and Zhang conceived the idea and provided the data; Li and Dong conducted the analyses; all authors contributed to the writing and revisions. All authors have given approval to the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to B. Zhang.

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Editorial responsibility: Nour Sh. El-Gendy.

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Li, Q., Dong, A. & Zhang, B. Impact of the opening of high-speed rail on environmental pollution in the Yangtze River Economic Belt: Promoting or inhibiting?. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 19, 11145–11160 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-021-03860-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-021-03860-8

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