How can urban administrative boundary expansion affect air pollution? Mechanism analysis and empirical test

Mingdong Jiang; Wenwen Chen; Xinxin Yu; Guanyu Zhong; Mengyuan Dai; Xiaomei Shen

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116075

How can urban administrative boundary expansion affect air pollution? Mechanism analysis and empirical test

J Environ Manage. 2022 Nov 15:322:116075. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116075. Epub 2022 Aug 30.

Authors

Mingdong Jiang¹, Wenwen Chen², Xinxin Yu³, Guanyu Zhong⁴, Mengyuan Dai⁵, Xiaomei Shen⁶

Affiliations

¹ College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. Electronic address: jiangmingdong@pku.edu.cn.
² School of urban and Regional Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China; Green, Low-Carbon and Circular Economy Institute of Yancheng, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng, Jiangsu, 224051, China.
³ School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, Heilongjiang 150001, China; Green, Low-Carbon and Circular Economy Institute of Yancheng, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng, Jiangsu, 224051, China. Electronic address: 21s016011@stu.hit.edu.cn.
⁴ School of Marketing, UNSW Business School, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia.
⁵ Green, Low-Carbon and Circular Economy Institute of Yancheng, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng, Jiangsu, 224051, China; Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 211100, China.
⁶ Green, Low-Carbon and Circular Economy Institute of Yancheng, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng, Jiangsu, 224051, China.

PMID: 36055097
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116075

Abstract

As a momentous policy tool for spatial management, urban administrative boundary expansion (UABE) significantly impacts resource reorganization and development modes. However, the environmental effects of UABE are easily ignored. Whether UABE can also impove the environmental quality in addition to its economic effects remains to be answered. To fill this gap, we took the city-county merger policy (CCMP) in China as quasi-experimental evidence and empirically investigated the impacts of CCMP on air pollution based on the difference-in-difference method. The impact mechanisms were also analyzed from a whole-process perspective. The results demonstrate that, apart from expanding the urban scale, UABE can improve urban air quality as well. Further analysis shows that the positive effect is mainly realized by source control and process management, rather than end-of-pipe treatment. Besides, the impacts of UABE on air pollution exhibit obvious spatial heterogeneous characteristics. We also reported that the environmental effects of UABE are largely dependent on governmental control, rather than market factors. According to the results above, flexible administrative boundary adjustment, strict government regulations, and effective market systems are required to realize the dual goals of environmental improvement and space optimization.

Keywords: Air pollution; DID method; Mechanism analysis; Urban administrative boundary expansion.

MeSH terms

Air Pollutants* / analysis
Air Pollution* / analysis
China
Cities
Environmental Monitoring
Environmental Pollution
Particulate Matter / analysis

Substances

Air Pollutants
Particulate Matter