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Does the promotion pressure on local officials matter for regional carbon emissions? Evidence based on provincial-level leaders in China

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Chen Xiude at Guangdong University of Technology
Chen Xiude
Yanting Ke
Yanting Ke
Yanting Ke
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Huiyang Li at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Huiyang Li
Ya-Zhi Song at Harbin Institute of Technology
Ya-Zhi Song
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Abstract and Figures

This paper constructs data from 30 provinces in mainland China from 1997 to 2016 and mainly adopts panel data fixed effects models to investigate how the promotion pressure on local officials affects regional carbon emissions. Our empirical results show that the relationship between the promotion pressure on local officials and regional carbon emissions has a dynamic evolution characteristic during our research period. Specifically, the promotion pressure on local officials is positively associated with regional carbon emissions before 2009; however, this relationship weakened after China’s carbon emission regulatory policies were strengthened in 2010. Furthermore, our heterogeneity analysis results show that the effect of promotion pressure on regional carbon emissions is moderated by the regional industrial structure, the economic development level, regional innovation capability, the tenure of officials and the age of officials. The conclusions of this study are helpful for understanding the driving factors of regional carbon emissions from the political economy perspective, and they also have implications for the formulation of performance evaluation and carbon emission reduction policies.
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Does the promotion pressure on local officials matter
for regional carbon emissions? Evidence based
on provincial-level leaders in China
Xiude Chen .Yanting Ke .Huiyang Li .Yazhi Song .Yulian Peng
Received: 27 October 2020 / Accepted: 26 July 2021 / Published online: 10 August 2021
The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2021
Abstract This paper constructs data from 30
provinces in mainland China from 1997 to 2016 and
mainly adopts panel data fixed effects models to
investigate how the promotion pressure on local
officials affects regional carbon emissions. Our empir-
ical results show that the relationship between the
promotion pressure on local officials and regional
carbon emissions has a dynamic evolution character-
istic during our research period. Specifically, the
promotion pressure on local officials is positively
associated with regional carbon emissions before
2009; however, this relationship weakened after
China’s carbon emission regulatory policies were
strengthened in 2010. Furthermore, our heterogeneity
analysis results show that the effect of promotion
pressure on regional carbon emissions is moderated by
the regional industrial structure, the economic devel-
opment level, regional innovation capability, the
tenure of officials and the age of officials. The
conclusions of this study are helpful for understanding
the driving factors of regional carbon emissions from
the political economy perspective, and they also have
implications for the formulation of performance
evaluation and carbon emission reduction policies.
Keywords Local officials Promotion pressure
Regional carbon emissions Provincial-level leaders
Introduction
Carbon emissions are believed to be largely respon-
sible for human-induced climatic change, including
global warming (Rehan & Nehdi, 2005), which leads
to anomalous weather disasters such as typhoon,
snowstorm and cold current and seriously endangers
the life and health of people of the world. In 2009,
China, one of the largest carbon emitters, proposed the
goal of controlling greenhouse gas emissions such
Xiude Chen and Huiyang Li contributed to the work equally
and should be regarded as co-first authors.
X. Chen Y. Ke
School of Management, Guangdong University of
Technology, Guangzhou 510520, China
X. Chen
Center for Education Big Data Research of Guangdong
Province, Guangzhou 510520, China
H. Li
Lingnan (University) College, Sun Yat-Sen University,
Guangzhou 510275, China
Y. Song (&)
Business School, Jiangsu Normal University,
Xuzhou 221116, China
e-mail: songyazhi@jsnu.edu.cn
Y. Peng
Guangzhou City University of Technology,
Guangzhou 510800, China
123
Environ Geochem Health (2022) 44:2881–2903
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-021-01050-6(0123456789().,-volV)(0123456789().,-volV)
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
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