IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeeman/v132y2025ics0095069625000634.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does freight structure transformation improve air quality?–Evidence from China's “shifting freight from truck to rail” policy

Author

Listed:
  • Liang, Yuchao
  • Zheng, Guohua
  • Wang, Jinuo
  • Pang, Jun

Abstract

China proactively reshaped its freight system to combat air pollution from the transportation sector. This paper focuses on the “Shifting Freight from Truck to Rail” (SFTR) policy, and examines the environmental consequences of expanding railway transport system while curbing heavy trucks in road freight. Combine the high-frequency air pollution data with meteorology data, utilizing the augmented regression discontinuity in time-series (RDiT), we found that the implementation of SFTR led to a respective decrease of 13.9 %, 12.5 %, and 4.2 % in the concentrations of PM2.5, PM10, and NO2 in the Bohai Rim region. Our empirical findings withstand an alternative specification of generalized difference-in-differences (DiD) method and a series of robustness checks. Preliminary calculations indicate that the health and economic output benefits of SFTR in the Bohai Rim region amount to approximately $24.99 billion, with the cost of expanding freight railway infrastructure and firms’ compliance cost totaling $4.05 billion.

Suggested Citation

  • Liang, Yuchao & Zheng, Guohua & Wang, Jinuo & Pang, Jun, 2025. "Does freight structure transformation improve air quality?–Evidence from China's “shifting freight from truck to rail” policy," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:132:y:2025:i:c:s0095069625000634
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103179
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095069625000634
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103179?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:132:y:2025:i:c:s0095069625000634. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622870 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.