IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecanpo/v82y2024icp1384-1405.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can the China–Europe Railway Express reduce carbon dioxide emissions? New mechanism of the manufacturing industry substitution effect

Author

Listed:
  • He, Peiming
  • Tian, Xingyue
  • Zhang, Jiaming
  • Yu, Siyu
  • Li, Shiyu
  • Lin, Chuan
  • Chen, Litai
  • Qian, Lei

Abstract

The China–Europe Railway Express (CRE) has attracted and fostered low-carbon, export-oriented manufacturing industry sectors; thus, it could reduce carbon dioxide emissions through the manufacturing industry substitution effect. To verify this new mechanism, this study focuses on a specific case, namely, Chongqing’s electronic and telecommunications equipment (ETE) manufacturing industry, as this sector is a low-carbon industry promoted by the CRE. This study proposes a novel detour estimation strategy for causal identification of the environmental externality of the CRE on carbon dioxide emissions. The results show that the CRE could contribute to an increase of 567.06 billion yuan in ETE exports from Chongqing to Europe and a consequent reduction of 17.10 million tons of carbon dioxide between 2011 and 2021. This study provides new insights into the environmental externality of the CRE and the mechanism of the manufacturing industry substitution effect, contributing to the understanding of the relationship between transportation and carbon dioxide emissions.

Suggested Citation

  • He, Peiming & Tian, Xingyue & Zhang, Jiaming & Yu, Siyu & Li, Shiyu & Lin, Chuan & Chen, Litai & Qian, Lei, 2024. "Can the China–Europe Railway Express reduce carbon dioxide emissions? New mechanism of the manufacturing industry substitution effect," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 1384-1405.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:82:y:2024:i:c:p:1384-1405
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eap.2024.05.023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0313592624001371
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eap.2024.05.023?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David L. Hummels & Georg Schaur, 2013. "Time as a Trade Barrier," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(7), pages 2935-2959, December.
    2. Zhu, Lichao, 2023. "Comparative evaluation of CO2 emissions from transportation in countries around the world," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    3. Yu, Yang & Li, Shuangqi & Sun, Huaping & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad, 2021. "Energy carbon emission reduction of China’s transportation sector: An input–output approach," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 378-393.
    4. Liu, Zhen & Diao, Ziyu & Lu, Yuan, 2024. "Can the opening of high-speed rail boost the reduction of air pollution and carbon emissions? Quasi-experimental evidence from China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    5. Strauss, Jack & Li, Hongchang & Cui, Jinli, 2021. "High-speed Rail's impact on airline demand and air carbon emissions in China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 85-97.
    6. Chang, Yuan & Lei, Shuhua & Teng, Jianjian & Zhang, Jiangxue & Zhang, Lixiao & Xu, Xiao, 2019. "The energy use and environmental emissions of high-speed rail transportation in China: A bottom-up modeling," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 1193-1201.
    7. Yatang Lin & Yu Qin & Jing Wu & Mandi Xu, 2021. "Impact of high-speed rail on road traffic and greenhouse gas emissions," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 11(11), pages 952-957, November.
    8. Wang, Yongpei & Guan, Zhongyu & Zhang, Qian, 2023. "Railway opening and carbon emissions in distressed areas: Evidence from China's state-level poverty-stricken counties," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 55-67.
    9. Alberto Abadie & Alexis Diamond & Jens Hainmueller, 2015. "Comparative Politics and the Synthetic Control Method," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 59(2), pages 495-510, February.
    10. Alberto Abadie & Javier Gardeazabal, 2003. "The Economic Costs of Conflict: A Case Study of the Basque Country," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 113-132, March.
    11. Zhang, Yilin & Zhang, Anming & Wang, Kun & Zheng, Shiyuan & Yang, Hangjun & Hong, Junjie, 2023. "Impact of CR Express and intermodal freight transport competition on China-Europe Route: Emission and welfare implications," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    12. Xu, Mengqiao & Li, Zhenfu & Shi, Yanlei & Zhang, Xiaoling & Jiang, Shufei, 2015. "Evolution of regional inequality in the global shipping network," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-12.
    13. Jia, Ruining & Shao, Shuai & Yang, Lili, 2021. "High-speed rail and CO2 emissions in urban China: A spatial difference-in-differences approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    14. Atabani, A.E. & Badruddin, Irfan Anjum & Mekhilef, S. & Silitonga, A.S., 2011. "A review on global fuel economy standards, labels and technologies in the transportation sector," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(9), pages 4586-4610.
    15. Jiang, Yonglei & Liao, Feixiong & Jin, Lianjie, 2021. "Effects of locational accessibility on firm diffusion characteristics: The case of Sino-Europe Economic Corridor," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 80-93.
    16. Hou, Xiang & Hu, Qianlin & Liang, Xin & Xu, Jingxuan, 2023. "How do low-carbon city pilots affect carbon emissions? Staggered difference in difference evidence from Chinese firms," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 664-686.
    17. Shao, Shuai & Tian, Zhihua & Yang, Lili, 2017. "High speed rail and urban service industry agglomeration: Evidence from China's Yangtze River Delta region," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 174-183.
    18. Chang, Zheng & Zheng, Longfei, 2022. "High-speed rail and the spatial pattern of new firm births: Evidence from China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 373-386.
    19. Zeng, Qing-Hua & He, Ling-Yun, 2023. "Study on the synergistic effect of air pollution prevention and carbon emission reduction in the context of "dual carbon": Evidence from China's transport sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    20. Nie, Liang & Zhang, ZhongXiang, 2023. "Is high-speed rail heading towards a low-carbon industry? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    21. Susan Athey & Guido W. Imbens, 2017. "The State of Applied Econometrics: Causality and Policy Evaluation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(2), pages 3-32, Spring.
    22. Yihsu Chen & Alexander Whalley, 2012. "Green Infrastructure: The Effects of Urban Rail Transit on Air Quality," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 4(1), pages 58-97, February.
    23. Sun, Chuanwang & Zhang, Wenyue & Fang, Xingming & Gao, Xiang & Xu, Meilian, 2019. "Urban public transport and air quality: Empirical study of China cities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    24. Li, Xiang & Cheng, Zhonghua, 2022. "Does high-speed rail improve urban carbon emission efficiency in China?," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    25. Xu, Jinghang & Guan, Yuru & Oldfield, Jonathan & Guan, Dabo & Shan, Yuli, 2024. "China carbon emission accounts 2020-2021," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 360(C).
    26. Yu, Yantuan & Zhang, Ning, 2021. "Low-carbon city pilot and carbon emission efficiency: Quasi-experimental evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    27. Avogadro, Nicolò & Cattaneo, Mattia & Paleari, Stefano & Redondi, Renato, 2021. "Replacing short-medium haul intra-European flights with high-speed rail: Impact on CO2 emissions and regional accessibility," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 25-39.
    28. Sun, Chuanwang & Zhang, Wenyue & Luo, Yuan & Xu, Yonghong, 2019. "The improvement and substitution effect of transportation infrastructure on air quality: An empirical evidence from China's rail transit construction," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 949-957.
    29. Alberto Abadie, 2021. "Using Synthetic Controls: Feasibility, Data Requirements, and Methodological Aspects," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 391-425, June.
    30. Li, Chunying & Zhang, Jinning & Lyu, Yanwei, 2022. "Does the opening of China railway express promote urban total factor productivity? New evidence based on SDID and SDDD model," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    31. Huang, Guobin & Zhang, Jie & Yu, Jian & Shi, Xunpeng, 2020. "Impact of transportation infrastructure on industrial pollution in Chinese cities: A spatial econometric analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    32. Tang, Zhaopei & Wang, Liehui & Wu, Wei, 2023. "The impact of high-speed rail on urban carbon emissions: Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    33. Liu, Jiaguo & Meng, Hui, 2024. "Can China railway express enhance the economic-trade vitality of cities? A spatial empirical evidence from China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 121-138.
    34. Abadie, Alberto & Diamond, Alexis & Hainmueller, Jens, 2010. "Synthetic Control Methods for Comparative Case Studies: Estimating the Effect of California’s Tobacco Control Program," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 105(490), pages 493-505.
    35. Shan, Yuli & Liu, Jianghua & Liu, Zhu & Xu, Xinwanghao & Shao, Shuai & Wang, Peng & Guan, Dabo, 2016. "New provincial CO2 emission inventories in China based on apparent energy consumption data and updated emission factors," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 742-750.
    36. Jiang, Yonglei & Sheu, Jiuh-Biing & Peng, Zixuan & Yu, Bin, 2018. "Hinterland patterns of China Railway (CR) express in China under the Belt and Road Initiative: A preliminary analysis," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 189-201.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Li, Xitong & He, Peiming & Liao, Honglin & Liu, Jindan & Chen, Litai, 2024. "Does network infrastructure construction reduce urban–rural income inequality? Based on the “Broadband China” policy," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. He, Peiming & Zhang, Jiaming & Chen, Litai, 2022. "Time is money: Impact of China-Europe Railway Express on the export of laptop products from Chongqing to Europe," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 312-322.
    2. Wang, Yongpei & Guan, Zhongyu & Zhang, Qian, 2023. "Railway opening and carbon emissions in distressed areas: Evidence from China's state-level poverty-stricken counties," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 55-67.
    3. Echevarría, Cruz A. & Hasancebi, Serhat & García-Enríquez, Javier, 2022. "Economic Effects of Macao’s Integration with Mainland China: A Causal Inference Study," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 37(2), pages 179-215.
    4. Manuel Funke & Moritz Schularick & Christoph Trebesch, 2023. "Populist Leaders and the Economy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 113(12), pages 3249-3288, December.
    5. Dennis Shen & Peng Ding & Jasjeet Sekhon & Bin Yu, 2022. "Same Root Different Leaves: Time Series and Cross-Sectional Methods in Panel Data," Papers 2207.14481, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2022.
    6. Pavlik, Jamie Bologna & Jahan, Israt & Young, Andrew T., 2023. "Do longer constitutions corrupt?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    7. Pekka Malo & Juha Eskelinen & Xun Zhou & Timo Kuosmanen, 2024. "Computing Synthetic Controls Using Bilevel Optimization," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 64(2), pages 1113-1136, August.
    8. Michael Funke & Kadri Männasoo & Helery Tasane, 2023. "Regional Economic Impacts of the Øresund Cross-Border Fixed Link: Cui Bono?," CESifo Working Paper Series 10557, CESifo.
    9. Robert Kraemer & Jonne Lehtimäki, 2024. "Government debt, European Institutions and fiscal rules: a synthetic control approach," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 31(4), pages 1112-1157, August.
    10. Emiliano Toni & Pablo Paniagua & Patricio 'Ordenes, 2024. "Policy Changes and Growth Slowdown: Assessing the Lost Decade of the Latin American Miracle," Papers 2407.02003, arXiv.org.
    11. Tomasz Serwach, 2023. "The European Union and within‐country income inequalities. The case of the new member states," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(7), pages 1890-1939, July.
    12. Stefano, Roberta di & Mellace, Giovanni, 2020. "The inclusive synthetic control method," Discussion Papers on Economics 14/2020, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Economics.
    13. Tomasz Serwach, 2022. "The European Union and within-country income inequalities. The case of the New Member States," Working Papers hal-03548416, HAL.
    14. Gabriel, Ricardo Duque & Pessoa, Ana Sofia, 2024. "Adopting the euro: A synthetic control approach," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    15. Diego D'iaz & Pablo Paniagua & Cristi'an Larroulet, 2024. "Earthquakes and the wealth of nations: The cases of Chile and New Zealand," Papers 2405.12041, arXiv.org.
    16. David Gilchrist & Thomas Emery & Nuno Garoupa & Rok Spruk, 2023. "Synthetic Control Method: A tool for comparative case studies in economic history," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 409-445, April.
    17. Nadine McCloud, 2022. "Does domestic investment respond to inflation targeting? A synthetic control investigation," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 169, pages 98-134.
    18. Roy Cerqueti & Raffaella Coppier & Alessandro Girardi & Marco Ventura, 2022. "The sooner the better: lives saved by the lockdown during the COVID-19 outbreak. The case of Italy," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 25(1), pages 46-70.
    19. Liu, Zhen & Diao, Ziyu & Lu, Yuan, 2024. "Can the opening of high-speed rail boost the reduction of air pollution and carbon emissions? Quasi-experimental evidence from China," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    20. Brehm, Johannes & aus dem Moore, Nils & Gruhl, Henri, 2022. "Driving Innovation? – Carbon Tax Effects in the Swedish Transport Sector," VfS Annual Conference 2022 (Basel): Big Data in Economics 264085, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:82:y:2024:i:c:p:1384-1405. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/economic-analysis-and-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.