Sustainable development with city, industry, economic and environment: The role of city-industry integration on green economic growth

Abstract

<p>In order to avoid the real economy development lags behind and the deterioration of ecological problems in the process of traditional urbanization, China has been promoting city-industry deep integration, but the connection between city-industry integration and green economic growth, especially the spatial effect, has not been systematically explained. Based on the panel data from 2007 to 2018, this paper constructs an evaluation index system and uses the SEEA method to measure city-industry integration (CII) level and green economy growth (GEG) level. Then, by employing spatial Durbin model and intermediary effect model, it further systematically investigates the spatial impact of CII on GEG and the potential mechanism. The study found that: (1) On the whole, CII shows &ldquo;slow-steady integration&rdquo; trend, but regional heterogeneity was obvious and accompanied by &ldquo;slow gap expansion&rdquo;. GEG experienced &ldquo;sharp increase&rdquo; with &ldquo;polarization&rdquo; characteristic. (2) CII can directly promote regional GEG (with a marginal effect of 0.689), more effectively than traditional urbanization, and CII has obvious spatial spillover effects on GEG in both &ldquo;local effect&rdquo; and &ldquo;neighboring effect&rdquo;. (3) Interestingly, technological innovation and consumption structure upgrading are significant mediating mechanisms. (4) The direct positive effect of CII shows the regional imbalance characteristic. Finally, the corresponding policy implications are put forward.</p>