Research On The Impact Of Financial Cluster On Carbon Emissions In Urban Agglomerations In The Yangtze River Economic Belt

The Yangtze River Economic Belt is China ’s high-density economic corridor and an important ecological function area.The development of low-carbon economy is an important guide to realize the green development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and plays a vital role in the realization of China ’s " double carbon " goal.Financial industry is the core industry of modern economy,and financial agglomeration plays an important role in low-carbon development.There are three different views on the relationship between financial agglomeration and carbon emissions in academia :financial agglomeration promotes carbon emissions,financial agglomeration inhibits carbon emissions,and there is a nonlinear relationship between financial agglomeration and carbon emissions.Due to the regional heterogeneity of financial agglomeration and carbon emission reduction effects in different regions,this paper takes the three major urban agglomerations in the Yangtze River Economic Belt as the research object to explore the impact of financial agglomeration on carbon emissions.First of all,starting from the theory,combing the relevant research results on urban agglomeration,financial agglomeration and carbon emissions at home and abroad,as well as the relevant theoretical basis of externality theory,economies of scale,growth pole theory and environmental Kuznets curve,and then from the direct and indirect impact of financial agglomeration on carbon emissions.Analyze the resource allocation,technical effect and structural effect of financial agglomeration,and establish the impact mechanism of financial agglomeration on carbon emissions.Secondly,the relevant data of 71 prefecture-level and above cities in 9 provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2006 to 2019 are selected for empirical research.The degree of financial agglomeration is measured by entropy method,and the degree of financial agglomeration and carbon emission intensity are measured and analyzed.Finally,the benchmark regression model and the mediating effect model are constructed to explore the direct and indirect effects of financial agglomeration on carbon emissions.The threshold regression model is constructed to study whether there is a non-linear relationship between financial agglomeration and carbon emissions.The following conclusions are obtained :(1)Financial agglomeration in the Yangtze River Economic Belt has significantly inhibited the intensity of urban carbon emissions,but there is a large gap in the level of development within the urban agglomeration,and the financial agglomeration of each urban agglomeration has different inhibitory effects on carbon emissions;(2)It is found that technological innovation and industrial structure have significant partial mediating effects in the process of financial agglomeration affecting carbon emissions;(3)There is a significant single threshold effect in financial agglomeration,and the threshold value is 0.028.When the degree of financial agglomeration is less than the threshold value,the regression coefficient of financial agglomeration is significantly positive.When the threshold variable is greater than the threshold value,the regression coefficient of financial agglomeration is significantly negative,indicating that there is a nonlinear effect between financial agglomeration and carbon emissions,showing an inverted “U” relationship.Based on the above conclusions,this paper proposes the following four countermeasures to promote the low-carbon development of urban agglomerations in the Yangtze River Economic Belt :(1)Improve the level of financial agglomeration and form a hierarchical layout;(2)Vigorously develop green finance to achieve energy conservation and emission reduction;(3)Promote low-carbon technology innovation and play a technology spillover effect;(4)Strengthen low-carbon target constraints and advocate collaborative emission reduction governance.