IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i17p7972-d1742043.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Based on Spatial–Regional Heterogeneity Perspective: Environmental Regulation Impacts on Green Transformation of Transportation

Author

Listed:
  • Yanming Sun

    (School of Transportation, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China
    International Cooperation Center of National Development and Reform Commission, Beijing 100038, China)

  • Jiashuo Chen

    (School of Transportation, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China)

  • Qingli Li

    (International Cooperation Center of National Development and Reform Commission, Beijing 100038, China)

Abstract

In the context of the urgent green transformation of China’s transportation sector, environmental regulation (ER) provides an essential opportunity to promote the green development of the transportation sector. This paper proposes a research framework to elucidate the spatial impacts of ER on transportation’s green transformation. First, the green total factor productivity (GTFP) level of China in 2018–2022 is assessed using the super efficiency SBM-GML model that considers non-desired outputs, and the spatial heterogeneity characteristics of transportation’s green transformation are analyzed. Then, the level of ER is quantified, and the spatial Durbin model is applied to reveal the spatial–regional heterogeneous linkage effect of ER on the green transformation of transportation. The results of the study are as follows: (1) The green level of China’s transportation has been increasing, but regional disparities are still obvious. Specifically, the spatial pattern of greening level is the Eastern region > Northeastern region > Central region > Western region. (2) The transportation’s green level of Chinese provinces, in general, shows strong spatial correlation, exhibiting increasingly obvious ‘high-high’ and ‘low-low’ clustering patterns. (3) Environmental regulation has a positive spatial spillover effect and a non-linear impact on the green development of transportation, showing an inverted ‘U’-shaped relationship. Further analysis reveals that there is obvious heterogeneity in the impact of ER on the green transformation of transportation in the eastern, central, and western regions. The results of the study provide reference values and suggestions for the formulation of more targeted regional transport development policies and dynamic environmental impact policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Yanming Sun & Jiashuo Chen & Qingli Li, 2025. "Based on Spatial–Regional Heterogeneity Perspective: Environmental Regulation Impacts on Green Transformation of Transportation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(17), pages 1-28, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:17:p:7972-:d:1742043
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/17/7972/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/17/7972/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dong-hyun Oh, 2010. "A global Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 183-197, December.
    2. Mingxuan Lu & Peirong Chen, 2024. "Traffic Safety, Fuel Tax Intensity and Sustainable Development Efficiency of Transportation: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-17, July.
    3. Wenying Peng & Yue Sun & Yingchen Li & Xiaojuan Yuchi, 2022. "An Evaluation and Promotion Strategy of Green Land Use Benefits in China: A Case Study of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-18, July.
    4. Jia Li & Decai Tang & Acheampong Paul Tenkorang & Zhuoran Shi, 2021. "Research on Environmental Regulation and Green Total Factor Productivity in Yangtze River Delta: From the Perspective of Financial Development," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-24, November.
    5. Ganotakis, Panagiotis & D'Angelo, Alfredo & Konara, Palitha, 2021. "From latent to emergent entrepreneurship: The role of human capital in entrepreneurial founding teams and the effect of external knowledge spillovers for technology adoption," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    6. Ya Chen & Xiaoli Fan & Qian Zhou, 2020. "An Inverted-U Impact of Environmental Regulations on Carbon Emissions in China’s Iron and Steel Industry: Mechanisms of Synergy and Innovation Effects," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-19, February.
    7. Marco Testoni, 2024. "Transportation networks and competition in the market for corporate control," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(6), pages 1180-1208, June.
    8. Li, Wenqing & Qiao, Yuanbo & Li, Xiao & Wang, Yutao, 2022. "Energy consumption, pollution haven hypothesis, and Environmental Kuznets Curve: Examining the environment–economy link in belt and road initiative countries," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PE).
    9. Jiangfeng Hu & Zhao Wang & Qinghua Huang & Xiaoqin Zhang, 2019. "Environmental Regulation Intensity, Foreign Direct Investment, and Green Technology Spillover—An Empirical Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-15, May.
    10. Hren, Robert & Vujanović, Annamaria & Van Fan, Yee & Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír & Krajnc, Damjan & Čuček, Lidija, 2023. "Hydrogen production, storage and transport for renewable energy and chemicals: An environmental footprint assessment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    11. Jiaguo Liu & Hui Meng & Haonan Xu & Jihong Chen, 2025. "Economic–environmental coordination and influencing factors under dual-carbon goal: a spatial empirical evidence from China’s transport sector," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 531-569, January.
    12. Wiskich, Anthony, 2021. "A comment on innovation with multiple equilibria and "The environment and directed technical change"," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    13. Tianlu Qian & Zheng Fu & Jie Chen & Shujie Qin & Changbai Xi & Jiechen Wang, 2023. "Evaluating multiscale and multimodal transport inequalities in Chinese cities with massive open-source path data," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 237-264, April.
    14. Audretsch, David B & Feldman, Maryann P, 1996. "R&D Spillovers and the Geography of Innovation and Production," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(3), pages 630-640, June.
    15. Maohui Ren & Tao Zhou & Di Wang & Chenxi Wang, 2023. "Does Environmental Regulation Promote the Infrastructure Investment Efficiency? Analysis Based on the Spatial Effects," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-24, February.
    16. Bartram, Söhnke M. & Hou, Kewei & Kim, Sehoon, 2022. "Real effects of climate policy: Financial constraints and spillovers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(2), pages 668-696.
    17. Xi Liang & Pingan Li, 2020. "Empirical Study of the Spatial Spillover Effect of Transportation Infrastructure on Green Total Factor Productivity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    18. Jian Liu & Ziwen Yuan & Lizhao Yan & Wanling Zhou, 2025. "Do Market-Based Environmental Regulations Promote Green Development? A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on Carbon Emissions Trading Pilot of China," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 61(3), pages 595-611, February.
    19. Rehman, Faheem Ur & Islam, Md. Monirul & Miao, Qing, 2023. "Environmental sustainability via green transportation: A case of the top 10 energy transition nations," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 32-44.
    20. Shi Wang & Wen Zhang & Hua Wang & Jue Wang & Mu-Jun Jiang, 2021. "How Does Income Inequality Influence Environmental Regulation in the Context of Corruption? A Panel Threshold Analysis Based on Chinese Provincial Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-18, July.
    21. Tone, Kaoru, 2001. "A slacks-based measure of efficiency in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(3), pages 498-509, May.
    22. Behera, Biswanath & Sahoo, Malayaranjan & Sethi, Litu & Das, Aurolipsa & Sethi, Narayan & Ahmad, Mahmood, 2025. "Fuelling the low-carbon transportation sector in emerging economies: Role of institutional quality, environmental tax, green technology innovation and biofuel," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 124-134.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chunhua Xin & Xiufeng Lai, 2022. "Does the Environmental Information Disclosure Promote the High-Quality Development of China’s Resource-Based Cities?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-26, May.
    2. Dai, Zhifeng & Zhu, Haoyang, 2024. "Climate policy uncertainty and urban green total factor productivity: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).
    3. Zhou, Lin & Fan, Jianshuang & Hu, Mingzhi & Yu, Xiaofen, 2024. "Clean air policy and green total factor productivity: Evidence from Chinese prefecture-level cities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    4. Lingyan Xu & Dandan Wang & Jianguo Du, 2022. "Spatial-Temporal Evolution and Influencing Factors of Urban Green and Smart Development Level in China: Evidence from 232 Prefecture-Level Cities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-19, March.
    5. Min Wang & Meng Ji & Xiaofen Wu & Kexin Deng & Xiaodong Jing, 2023. "Analysis on Evaluation and Spatial-Temporal Evolution of Port Cluster Eco-Efficiency: Case Study from the Yangtze River Delta in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-16, May.
    6. Shuo Wang & Naixu Tian & Yuqi Dai & Haiyan Duan, 2022. "Measurement of Resource Environmental Performance of Crop Planting Water Consumption Based on Water Footprint and Data Enveloped Analysis," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 36(2), pages 641-658, January.
    7. Zhang, Yaxin & Zeng, Shibo & Wu, Qiaosheng & Fu, Junyi & Li, Tongping, 2023. "A study on the impact of the carbon emissions trading policy on the mining industry based on Porter hypothesis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(PB).
    8. Meng, Ming & Qu, Danlei, 2022. "Understanding the green energy efficiencies of provinces in China: A Super-SBM and GML analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PA).
    9. Feng Ye & Zhongna Yang & Mark Yu & Susan Watson & Ashley Lovell, 2023. "Can Market-Oriented Reform of Agricultural Subsidies Promote the Growth of Agricultural Green Total Factor Productivity? Empirical Evidence from Maize in China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-20, January.
    10. Ruomeng Zhou & Yunsheng Zhang, 2023. "Measurement of Urban Green Total Factor Productivity and Analysis of Its Temporal and Spatial Evolution in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-32, June.
    11. Xian’En Wang & Shimeng Wang & Xipan Wang & Wenbo Li & Junnian Song & Haiyan Duan & Shuo Wang, 2019. "The Assessment of Carbon Performance under the Region-Sector Perspective based on the Nonparametric Estimation: A Case Study of the Northern Province in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-23, October.
    12. Yangzhou Li & Cheng Li & Dongni Feng, 2024. "Study on Transportation Green Efficiency and Spatial Correlation in the Yangtze River Economic Belt," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-25, April.
    13. Qin Shu & Yang Su & Hong Li & Feng Li & Yunjie Zhao & Chen Du, 2023. "Study on the Spatial Structure and Drivers of Agricultural Carbon Emission Efficiency in Belt and Road Initiative Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-27, July.
    14. Kai Xu & Bart Bossink & Qiang Chen, 2019. "Efficiency Evaluation of Regional Sustainable Innovation in China: A Slack-Based Measure (SBM) Model with Undesirable Outputs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-21, December.
    15. Yongyi Cheng & Liheng Lu & Tianyuan Shao & Manhong Shen & Laiqun Jin, 2018. "Decomposition Analysis of Factors Affecting Changes in Industrial Wastewater Emission Intensity in China: Based on a SSBM-GMI Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-23, December.
    16. Yongyi Cheng & Tianyuan Shao & Huilin Lai & Manhong Shen & Yi Li, 2019. "Total-Factor Eco-Efficiency and Its Influencing Factors in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-14, October.
    17. Xianpu Xu & Xiawan Li & Lin Zheng, 2022. "A Blessing or a Curse? Exploring the Impact of Environmental Regulation on China’s Regional Green Development from the Perspective of Governance Transformation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-24, January.
    18. Can Cheng & Xiuwen Yu & Heng Hu & Zitian Su & Shangfeng Zhang, 2022. "Measurement of China’s Green Total Factor Productivity Introducing Human Capital Composition," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-19, October.
    19. Lian, Yonghui & Dong, Haoran & Cao, Hong, 2024. "The effect of digital economy and environmental regulation on green total factor productivity: Evidence from China," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    20. Liu, Biao & Wang, Jinman & Feng, Yu & Yang, Man & Mu, Jiayin, 2024. "Mitigating the disparities in carbon emission efficiency enhancement in China's coal resource-based cities," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:17:p:7972-:d:1742043. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.