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Effect of Western Development Strategy on carbon productivity and its influencing mechanisms

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Abstract

A systematic analysis of the policy effects, as well as the intrinsic influencing mechanisms, associated with China’s 1999 Western Development Strategy (WDS) can inform the high-quality implementation of China’s new round of WDS starting in 2020. This study specifically evaluated the policy effect of China’s 1999 WDS on carbon productivity. The Synthetic Control Method was used to generate the counterfactual path of carbon productivity that Western China could have achieved without WDS. The policy effect was measured as the difference between the treated value and counterfactual value (synthetic value) of carbon productivity. The Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index was then applied to analyze the intrinsic influencing mechanisms. The results were as follows. First, carbon productivity in most of the western provinces in China was affected by the WDS, showing negative effects; in other words, carbon productivity was increased. Second, the WDS affected the carbon productivity differently, with different intrinsic influencing mechanisms. The energy productivity effect of industry and the carbon emission share effect of service industries played a relatively large role, with the average degrees of influence accounting for 54.62% and 42.82% of the total effects, respectively. Other factors had a relatively small influence or showed regional heterogeneity.

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Acknowledgements

Authors are grateful to the financial supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 71973062, 71922013, 71922013 and 71703065) and the National Social Science Foundation of China (no. 18ZDA050).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Finance, Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Cheng Zhang

  2. School of Economics, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300100, China

    Ziwei Zhao

  3. College of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 211106, China

    Qunwei Wang

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  1. Cheng Zhang
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Correspondence to Qunwei Wang.

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Appendix

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See Tables

Table 4 Decomposition of factors affecting carbon productivity in Sichuan and the effect of WDS
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Table 5 Decomposition of factors affecting carbon productivity in Inner Mongolia and the effect of WDS
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Table 6 Decomposition of factors affecting carbon productivity in Guangxi and the effect of WDS
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Table 7 Decomposition of factors affecting carbon productivity in Yunnan and the effect of WDS
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Table 8 Decomposition of factors affecting carbon productivity in Qinghai and the effect of WDS
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Table 9 Decomposition of factors affecting carbon productivity in Ningxia and the effect of WDS
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Table 10 Decomposition of factors affecting carbon productivity in Xinjiang and the effect of WDS
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Zhang, C., Zhao, Z. & Wang, Q. Effect of Western Development Strategy on carbon productivity and its influencing mechanisms. Environ Dev Sustain 24, 4963–5002 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01642-3

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