How Does Industrial Upgrading Affect Urban Ecological Efficiency? New Evidence from China

ABSTRACTThe upgrade of industrial structure is one type of momentum for improving urban ecological efficiency, and exploring the nexus between them can help implement the concept of green development. Using data from 284 cities in China between 2004 and 2019, this research employs a series of econometric models to examine how improving industrial structure contributes to the growth of urban ecological efficiency. The research results reveal that urban ecological efficiency can be significantly improved by industrial structure upgrade, while ecological efficiency is inhibited by low-quality GDP and financial development models and insignificantly decreased by industrial structure rationalization. In addition, industrial structure upgrading has failed to play a mediating role in promoting eco-efficiency through technological innovation and the reduction of pollutant emission intensity. Moreover, officials’ turnover plays a negative moderating influence on the role of industrial upgrading in increasing ecological efficiency, while environmental regulation plays the opposite role. This study further conducts triple heterogeneity tests including city size, resource endowment, and regional heterogeneity, which provide a feasible way for further implementation of relevant policies.KEYWORDS: Industrial upgradingurban ecological efficiencymoderating mechanismmediating mechanism AcknowledgementsWe would like to thank the editor professor Chun-Ping Chang and the other three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. In the test of city size, the division of city size in this paper is based on the population size of the city. According to whether the total urban population is more than 1 million, the city size is divided into two categories: large and small.2. In the resource endowment test, cities are divided into resource-based cities and non-resource-based cities according to the differences in resource endowments of each city. The division is based on the Notice of the State Council of China on the “National Sustainable Development Plan for Resource-Based Cities (2013–2020)” issued on November 12, 2013.3. In the geographical location test, this paper classifies cities according to four regions: east, middle, west and northeast. The prefecture-level cities under Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shandong, Guangdong and Hainan belong to the eastern region The prefecture-level cities under Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei and Hunan belong to the central region; the prefecture-level cities under Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang belong to the western region; The prefecture-level cities under Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang belong to the Northeast region.Additional informationFundingThe work was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China [22CJL018]; Postdoctoral Research Foundation of China [2022M720131].