Marketization, Industrial Structure Upgrading and Carbon Emission Intensity: Evidence from China

This paper reveals the theoretical mechanism between the marketization, industrial structure upgrading and carbon emission intensity, and makes an empirical test using the panel data of 284 cities in China from 2005 to 2017. The results show that: Firstly, marketization can not only reduce the carbon emission intensity, but also reduce the carbon emission intensity by the industrial structure upgrading. Secondly, marketization and industrial structure upgrading have heterogeneous effects on carbon emission intensity. For coastal cities in the eastern region, the effect of marketization and industrial structure upgrading on reducing carbon emission intensity are significant. Thirdly, from the perspective of cities with different carbon emission intensity and different observation years, marketization can always significantly inhibit the carbon emission intensity. At the same time, its impact on carbon emission intensity is significantly influenced by a ‘regulatory effect’ based on industrial structure upgrading.