High temperatures and urban entrepreneurship levels: Evidence from China

Yuanshuang Zhao; Liang Dong; Jiaying Li; Kehan Yang; Ning Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.166636

High temperatures and urban entrepreneurship levels: Evidence from China

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Dec 10:903:166636. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.166636. Epub 2023 Aug 27.

Authors

Yuanshuang Zhao¹, Liang Dong², Jiaying Li³, Kehan Yang³, Ning Zhang⁴

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Blue and Green Development, Shandong University, Weihai 264209, China; School of Energy and Environment (SEE), City University of Hong Kong, 999077, Hong Kong; Department of Public and International Affairs (PIA), City University of Hong Kong, 999077, Hong Kong.
² School of Energy and Environment (SEE), City University of Hong Kong, 999077, Hong Kong; Department of Public and International Affairs (PIA), City University of Hong Kong, 999077, Hong Kong; Centre for Public Affairs and Law, City University of Hong Kong, 999077, Hong Kong.
³ Department of Public and International Affairs (PIA), City University of Hong Kong, 999077, Hong Kong.
⁴ Institute of Blue and Green Development, Shandong University, Weihai 264209, China; Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom; Centre for Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Governance, Cambridge, United Kingdom. Electronic address: nz293@cam.ac.uk.

PMID: 37643711
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.166636

Abstract

This paper performed as a frontier try to investigate the effect of high temperatures on entrepreneurship, assessed from an urban perspective. This paper estimated the impact of high temperatures on urban entrepreneurship levels using data from 281 prefecture cities in China, during the period 2000-2017. This paper found that a single day with a temperature of above 30 °C led to a decrease of 0.47 % in urban entrepreneurship levels, compared with a single day recording comfortable temperatures. Following a series of robustness tests, the results were found to be significant. Next, this paper conducted a series of heterogeneity analyses and discovered that cities with advanced industrial structures, larger sizes and more essential hierarchies were less affected by high temperatures. Finally, this paper further analyzed the potential influence mechanisms of high temperatures on entrepreneurship. This paper found that high temperature affects urban entrepreneurship levels by worsening the entrepreneurial environment, especially by reducing human capital, hindering innovation, decreasing the financial support available to enterprises, and hindering economic development. The results of our study have thus enriched the literature on entrepreneurship by exploring the impact of climate change on entrepreneurship.

Keywords: China; Climate change; High temperature; Mechanism analysis; entrepreneurship.