| The Yangtze River Delta region is one of the most active regions in China's economic development and the region with the highest degree of regional integration in China.In recent years,the economy in the Yangtze River Delta has been growing,and environmental pollution has gradually emerged.The regional integration of the Yangtze River Delta has risen to the national strategy.This strategic move means that the degree of regional integration in the Yangtze River Delta will continue to increase.Can the environmental issues be improved in the process of regional integration to achieve high-quality and sustainable integrated development? Is there an internal connection between regional integration and environmental pollution,and what is the mechanism of its action?In this paper,by combing the existing literature,it is found that few studies directly take regional integration and environmental pollution as research objects.Most of them are based on the connotations of regional integration,such as international trade integration,market integration,and industrial agglomeration.This article first analyzes the mechanism of regional integration affecting environmental quality,which mainly includes overall effects and synergistic effects,and analyzes the impact on environmental pollution from four levels: market integration,industrial integration,transportation integration,and public service integration.Based on the mechanism of action,two hypotheses in this paper are proposed.Hypothesis one,regional integration has a certain reduction effect.Hypothesis two,different regional integration has heterogeneous effects on environmental pollution.In order to test the above assumptions,this article is based on the data of 18 cities in the Yangtze River Delta from 2007 to 2017.First,by constructing a set of reasonable regional integration level evaluation system,the development degree of the Yangtze River Delta regional integration is analyzed.Secondly,the relationship between regional integration and environmental pollution is studied by establishing a dynamic panel regression model.It also returns the market integration,industry integration,transportation integration,public service integration and environmental pollution indicators to explore the internal mechanism of regional integration affecting environmental pollution.This article mainly draws the following conclusions:(1)From 2007 to 2017,the level of regional integration in the Yangtze River Delta showed an upward trend year by year.From the statistical analysis of data,there is an inverse proportional relationship between the degree of regional integration and environmental pollutants emissions.(2)There is a significant inverted “U”-shaped nonlinear relationship between the Yangtze River Delta regional integration and environmental pollution,that is,with the continuous improvement of the Yangtze River Delta regional integration,environmental pollutant emissions show a trend of rising first and then falling.(3)The impact of regional integration on environmental pollution is heterogeneous,mainly manifested by the heterogeneity of different pollutants,the heterogeneity of different integration,and the heterogeneity of different industries.Based on the above conclusions,this paper proposes the following policy recommendations:(1)Promote the development of regional integration from the aspects of market integration,industrial integration,transportation integration,and public service integration,so as to achieve regional integration.Emission reduction effects;(2)Due to the heterogeneous impact of regional integration on environmental pollution,in the process of environmental governance,the structure of pollutants should be fully researched and trade-offs made,so as to minimize overall pollution In addition,different regional integration have inconsistent impacts on environmental pollution,and should promote the coordinated development of various types of integration,so as to achieve the goal of coordinated development of economic and environmental quality. |
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