Analyzing the influence of publishing a list of resource-exhausted city with spatial difference-in-differences model: evidence from city-level data in China.

Abstract

Promoting the carbon efficiency is an accepted topic in China’s sustainable development against the background of carbon neutrality. After the State Council announced 69 resource-exhausted cities, Chinese government has strengthened policy and funds support to set up a long-term mechanism of sustainable development. This paper utilizes a spatial difference-in-differences (SDID) method to investigate the policy effect in those resource-exhausted cities and their neighboring cities, with city-level data during 2004–2016. Then we find a positive feedback of supporting policy on carbon performance in both local regions and adjacent regions. Furthermore, we find that wage distortion could account for carbon performance improvement. Our results could provide evidence and implications for realizing the low-carbon economy in China.