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The impact of green taxation on green low-carbon development in Yangtze River Delta region of China—based on mediating effect model and spatial Durbin model

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Abstract

Promoting green low-carbon development is an important task in the construction of ecological civilization of China. The leadership has proclaimed green low-carbon development as the top national priority for development. Green low-carbon economy has become the high point of global industrial competition. Green taxation, as a tool for environmental regulation, plays an important role in the construction of ecological civilization. Therefore, this paper investigates the impact of green taxation on green low-carbon development in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region of China, using data of 41 cities from 2011 to 2021 in the YRD region. We construct a green low-carbon development index with the combined weight CRITIC-entropy method, and employ a mediating effect model and a spatial Durbin model based on double fixed effects in this study, which intends to provide a theoretical basis for the establishment of a sound tax policy system that is conducive to the green low-carbon development. The results show that (1) there is an evident spatial dependence of green low-carbon development in the YRD region; (2) green taxation has a significant positive effect on green low-carbon development through rationalization of industrial structure and advance of industrial structure; and (3) the positive impact of green taxation on green low-carbon development in the region is characterized by spatial spillover and heterogeneity. Specifically, green taxation significantly promotes green low-carbon development in the core area, but such green taxation dividend has yet to be realized in the expansion area.

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Funding

This research is supported by the 2021 General Project of Philosophy and Social Science Planning of Anhui Province: research on the level measurement and path optimization of comprehensive green transformation of Anhui’s economic and social development (AHSKY2021D52). Project manager: Xingcun Fang.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Anhui University, Hefei, 230601, China

    Xingcun Fang & Yang Yang

  2. Department of Economics, West Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, 49008, USA

    Wei-Chiao Huang

Authors
  1. Xingcun Fang
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  2. Yang Yang
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  3. Wei-Chiao Huang
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Contributions

Original draft preparation: Xingcun Fang and Yang Yang; review, revise, and editing: Xingcun Fang and Wei-Chiao Huang. All authors contributed to the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yang Yang.

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Fang, X., Yang, Y. & Huang, WC. The impact of green taxation on green low-carbon development in Yangtze River Delta region of China—based on mediating effect model and spatial Durbin model. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 103674–103689 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-29670-8

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