IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/sustdv/v31y2023i4p2583-2597.html

Emissions trading scheme and green development in China: Impact of city heterogeneity

Author

Listed:
  • Xueqi Zhai
  • Yunfei An
  • Xunpeng Shi
  • Hongqiao Cui

Abstract

The emissions trading scheme (ETS) is a key policy tool for reducing carbon emissions and combating climate change but may cause unintended social‐economic consequences. Clarifying the role of city heterogeneity can contribute to improving ETS policy and informing green development roadmaps. Using panel data of 274 Chinese prefecture‐level cities, the heterogeneous impacts of ETS on city green development efficiency (CGDE) were assessed by the difference in difference in difference (DDD) method. The results show that: the ETS significantly advances China's CGDE, mainly through inducing cities' green innovation. More insightfully, the ETS policy has more significant positive effects on the cities in the eastern region, high economic development, resource abundance, and good environmental governance than otherwise. The study suggests that designing the ETS should incorporate the cities' heterogeneous characteristics to accelerate green development through green innovation and cover more regions and industries.

Suggested Citation

  • Xueqi Zhai & Yunfei An & Xunpeng Shi & Hongqiao Cui, 2023. "Emissions trading scheme and green development in China: Impact of city heterogeneity," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 2583-2597, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:31:y:2023:i:4:p:2583-2597
    DOI: 10.1002/sd.2533
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2533
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sd.2533?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cai, Xiqian & Lu, Yi & Wu, Mingqin & Yu, Linhui, 2016. "Does environmental regulation drive away inbound foreign direct investment? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 73-85.
    2. Du, Gang & Yu, Meng & Sun, Chuanwang & Han, Zhao, 2021. "Green innovation effect of emission trading policy on pilot areas and neighboring areas: An analysis based on the spatial econometric model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    3. Luo, Kang & Liu, Yaobin & Chen, Pei-Fen & Zeng, Mingli, 2022. "Assessing the impact of digital economy on green development efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    4. Per Andersen & Niels Christian Petersen, 1993. "A Procedure for Ranking Efficient Units in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(10), pages 1261-1264, October.
    5. Nong, Duy & Nguyen, Trung H. & Wang, Can & Van Khuc, Quy, 2020. "The environmental and economic impact of the emissions trading scheme (ETS) in Vietnam," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    6. Zhou, Fengxiu & Wang, Xiaoyu, 2022. "The carbon emissions trading scheme and green technology innovation in China: A new structural economics perspective," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 365-381.
    7. Sun, YongPing & Xue, JinJun & Shi, XunPeng & Wang, KeYing & Qi, ShaoZhou & Wang, Lei & Wang, Cheng, 2019. "A dynamic and continuous allowances allocation methodology for the prevention of carbon leakage: Emission control coefficients," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 220-230.
    8. Yang, Yuying & Guo, Haixiang & Chen, Linfei & Liu, Xiao & Gu, Mingyun & Ke, Xiaoling, 2019. "Regional analysis of the green development level differences in Chinese mineral resource-based cities," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 261-272.
    9. Xiao, Huijuan & Wang, Daoping & Qi, Yu & Shao, Shuai & Zhou, Ya & Shan, Yuli, 2021. "The governance-production nexus of eco-efficiency in Chinese resource-based cities: A two-stage network DEA approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    10. Yue-Jun Zhang & Jing-Yue Liu, 2019. "Does carbon emissions trading affect the financial performance of high energy-consuming firms in China?," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 95(1), pages 91-111, January.
    11. Tang, Ling & Wu, Jiaqian & Yu, Lean & Bao, Qin, 2015. "Carbon emissions trading scheme exploration in China: A multi-agent-based model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 152-169.
    12. Ma, Dan & Zhu, Qing, 2022. "Innovation in emerging economies: Research on the digital economy driving high-quality green development," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 801-813.
    13. Ricardo Vinuesa & Hossein Azizpour & Iolanda Leite & Madeline Balaam & Virginia Dignum & Sami Domisch & Anna Felländer & Simone Daniela Langhans & Max Tegmark & Francesco Fuso Nerini, 2020. "The role of artificial intelligence in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-10, December.
    14. Li, Changsheng & Qi, Yaping & Liu, Shaohui & Wang, Xu, 2022. "Do carbon ETS pilots improve cities' green total factor productivity? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    15. Zhu, Bangzhu & Zhang, Mengfan & Huang, Liqing & Wang, Ping & Su, Bin & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2020. "Exploring the effect of carbon trading mechanism on China's green development efficiency: A novel integrated approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    16. Yang, Jun & Cheng, Jixin & Zou, Ran & Geng, Zhifei, 2021. "Industrial SO2 technical efficiency, reduction potential and technology heterogeneities of China's prefecture-level cities: A multi-hierarchy meta-frontier parametric approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    17. Zhang, Shengling & Wang, Yao & Hao, Yu & Liu, Zhiwei, 2021. "Shooting two hawks with one arrow: Could China's emission trading scheme promote green development efficiency and regional carbon equality?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    18. Wang, Keying & Wu, Meng & Sun, Yongping & Shi, Xunpeng & Sun, Ao & Zhang, Ping, 2019. "Resource abundance, industrial structure, and regional carbon emissions efficiency in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 203-214.
    19. Liu, Zhiqing & Geng, Yong & Dai, Hancheng & Wilson, Jeffrey & Xie, Yang & Wu, Rui & You, Wei & Yu, Zhongjue, 2018. "Regional impacts of launching national carbon emissions trading market: A case study of Shanghai," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 232-240.
    20. Cenjie Liu & Chunbo Ma & Rui Xie, 2020. "Structural, Innovation and Efficiency Effects of Environmental Regulation: Evidence from China’s Carbon Emissions Trading Pilot," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 75(4), pages 741-768, April.
    21. Narayan, Paresh Kumar & Narayan, Seema, 2010. "Carbon dioxide emissions and economic growth: Panel data evidence from developing countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 661-666, January.
    22. Meiling Wang & Silu Pang & Ikram Hmani & Ilham Hmani & Cunfang Li & Zhengxia He, 2021. "Towards sustainable development: How does technological innovation drive the increase in green total factor productivity?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 217-227, January.
    23. Stefano F. Verde, 2020. "The Impact Of The Eu Emissions Trading System On Competitiveness And Carbon Leakage: The Econometric Evidence," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 320-343, April.
    24. Chengcai Tang & Qianqian Zheng & Quanlin Zhong, 2022. "Evaluation of the green development level of tourism in ecological conservation areas: A case study of Beijing," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 1634-1654, December.
    25. Pan, An & Zhang, Wenna & Shi, Xunpeng & Dai, Ling, 2022. "Climate policy and low-carbon innovation: Evidence from low-carbon city pilots in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    26. Yu, Yantuan & Huang, Jianhuan & Zhang, Ning, 2019. "Modeling the eco-efficiency of Chinese prefecture-level cities with regional heterogeneities: A comparative perspective," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 402(C), pages 1-17.
    27. Dhakal, Shobhakar, 2009. "Urban energy use and carbon emissions from cities in China and policy implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4208-4219, November.
    28. Claudia Kemfert & Michael Kohlhaas & Truong Truong & Artem Protsenko, 2006. "The environmental and economic effects of European emissions trading," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(4), pages 441-455, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. An, Yunfei & Zhai, Xueqi & Ding, Hao & Zhou, Dequn, 2025. "Can carbon trading drive SDG success? Evidence from China's emissions trading pilot schemes," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    2. Zaijun Li & Wenjing Zhang & Suleman Sarwar & Meijuan Hu, 2023. "The spatio‐temporal interactive effects between ecological urbanization and industrial ecologization in the Yangtze River Delta region," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(5), pages 3254-3271, October.
    3. Li, Xingwei & Yang, Jie & Yao, Yuhong & Ding, Zuoyi & Hao, Jiekuo & Yin, Wenjun & Shen, Qiong, 2024. "Boosting green technology innovation in China's construction industry: The power of energy-consuming rights trading policy," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 410-423.

    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. Chen, Rushi & Howley, Peter & Kesidou, Effie, 2024. "The impact of ETS on productivity in developing economies: A micro-econometric evaluation with Chinese firm-level data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    2. Yunhui Wang & Rong Zhou, 2024. "Can carbon emission trading policies promote the withdrawal of government subsidies and the green development of enterprises? Empirical evidence from China’s A-share market," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-16, December.
    3. Lili Liu & Tiantian Feng & Cheng Zhong & Mingli Cui & Haoran Wang, 2025. "Synergy pathway innovation of carbon emission trading, tradable green certificate and green power trading policies: achieving China’s dual carbon goals," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-28, December.
    4. Lan, Jing & Wang, Pei, 2025. "An efficiency perspective on low carbon pilot city policy and carbon emission performance of listed enterprises: Quasi-experimental evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    5. Gu, Guangtong & Zheng, Haorong & Tong, Lingyun & Dai, Yaxian, 2022. "Does carbon financial market as an environmental regulation policy tool promote regional energy conservation and emission reduction? Empirical evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    6. Congyu Zhao & Kangyin Dong & Xiucheng Dong, 2025. "Is enhanced information and communication technology efficiency a powerful weapon for carbon unlocking? The case of China," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 355(1), pages 599-625, December.
    7. Yan, Xiaolei & He, Taiyi, 2024. "Wish fulfilment or wishful thinking? – Assessing the outcomes of China's pilot carbon emissions trading scheme on green economy efficiency in China's cities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    8. Jing Han & Weilin Zhu & Chaofan Chen, 2023. "Identifying Emissions Reduction Opportunities in International Bilateral Emissions Trading Systems to Achieve China’s Energy Sector NDCs," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-24, January.
    9. Zhengke Du & Chengcheng Zhu & Yuxin Zhou, 2022. "Increasing Quantity or Improving Quality: Can Soil Pollution Control Promote Green Innovation in China’s Industrial and Mining Enterprises?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-19, November.
    10. Liu, Jing-Yue & Zhang, Yue-Jun, 2021. "Has carbon emissions trading system promoted non-fossil energy development in China?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 302(C).
    11. Xiao Yang & Wen Jia & Kedan Wang & Geng Peng, 2024. "Does the National Carbon Emissions Trading Market Promote Corporate Environmental Protection Investment? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-22, January.
    12. Chen, Ke & Li, Qiyuan & Shoaib, Muhammad & Ameer, Waqar & Jiang, Tao, 2024. "Does improved digital governance in government promote natural resource management? Quasi-natural experiments based on smart city pilots," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    13. Cheng, Zhonghua & Meng, Xiangwei, 2023. "Can carbon emissions trading improve corporate total factor productivity?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    14. Zhang, Yue-Jun & Wang, Wei, 2021. "How does China's carbon emissions trading (CET) policy affect the investment of CET-covered enterprises?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    15. Jia, Zhijie & Wen, Shiyan, 2024. "Interaction effects of market-based and incentive-driven low-carbon policies on carbon emissions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    16. Yang, Zhenbing & Zhao, Ziyi & Shao, Shuai & Yang, Lili, 2023. "Carbon regulation and enterprise investment: Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    17. Li, Rui & Fang, Debin & Xu, Jiajun, 2024. "Does China's carbon inclusion policy promote household carbon emissions reduction? Theoretical mechanisms and empirical evidence," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    18. Jingru Xu & Xiangjing Tong & Baochen Yang, 2024. "The spatial spillover effect of carbon emission trading scheme on green innovation in China’s cities," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 73(2), pages 639-669, August.
    19. Wanfang Shen & Yufei Liu & Xiaowen Liu & Jianing Shi & Wenbin Liu & Chengye Liu, 2023. "The Effect of Industrial Structure Upgrading and Human Capital Structure Upgrading on Green Development Efficiency—Based on China’s Resource-Based Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-26, March.
    20. Xianxian Fan & Yunlei Zhou & Qiang Xie, 2025. "Assessment on the synergistic effect of pollution and carbon reductions in low-carbon city pilot policy: based on effectiveness and efficiency perspectives," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(6), pages 12945-12969, June.

    More about this item

    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:wly:sustdv:v:31:y:2023:i:4:p:2583-2597. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1719 .

    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.