区域一体化何以促进边界地区减污降碳协同治理？

李强，沈川皓

（安徽财经大学 经济学院，安徽 蚌埠2 33030）

摘要：边界污染问题具有高度复杂性，已成为实现减污降碳协同增效的关键难题。本文采用2003—2022年282个地级市的面板数据，考察了区域一体化政策对边界地区减污降碳协同治理的影响及其机制。研究发现：区域一体化政策有效缓解了省际边界地区治理分割和污染外溢，明显提升了边界地区的减污降碳协同治理效率，且政策影响具有累积效应，随时间推移逐渐减弱。机制分析结果表明，区域一体化通过增强执法监管与促进绿色技术创新，进而提升减污降碳协同治理效率，而财政压力和市场分割会削弱政策执行效果；异质性分析表明，区域一体化对东中部地区和城市群外部紧邻区域的减污降碳协同治理效果更为突出。政府在推动减污降碳治理时应重视区域一体化的关键作用，推动跨区域协同、平衡财政资源配置、优化监管激励机制，以破解“污染洼地”困境，实现边界地区环境治理的可持续发展。

基金项目：国家社会科学基金后期资助项目“异质性环境政策的减污降碳协同效应研究”（25FJLB051）；2024年度新时代育人省级质量工程项目（研究生教育）研究生学术创新项目“区域一体化对边界地区减污降碳协同效应的影响研究”（2024xscx089）

关键词：区域一体化；国家级城市群建设；边界污染；减污降碳协同治理；地方政府环境治理

作者简介：李强，安徽财经大学经济学院教授、博士生导师；沈川皓，安徽财经大学经济学院硕士研究生。

引用格式：李强，沈川皓. 区域一体化何以促进边界地区减污降碳协同治理？[J]. 首都经济贸易大学学报，2026，28（4）：63-75.

How does Regional Integration Promote Synergistic Pollution and Carbon Reduction in Border Regions?

LI Qiang, SHEN Chuanhao

(Anhui University of Finance and Economics, Bengbu 233030)

Abstract: Boundary pollution presents a highly complex challenge and has become a critical issue for achieving synergistic pollution and carbon reduction. This paper treats the approval and establishment of national urban agglomerations as a quasi-natural experiment, using whether a city is located on a provincial boundary to define boundary areas. It examines the mechanisms and effects of regional integration on urban governance of pollution and carbon emissions, providing both theoretical insights and practical references for addressing the pollution lowland problem and enhancing synergistic environmental outcomes.

This paper employs panel data from 282 prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2022 and applies a multi-period difference-in-differences method to evaluate the impact of national urban agglomeration construction on synergistic pollution and carbon reduction in provincial boundary cities. The results show that regional integration policies effectively alleviate governance fragmentation and pollution spillovers in boundary areas, significantly enhancing the level of synergistic pollution and carbon reduction. This conclusion remains robust after a series of tests, including indicator adjustment, alternative dependent variables, and sample exclusions of municipalities, provincial capitals, and competing policies. The long-term effect analysis reveals that the impact of regional integration accumulates over time but gradually weakens. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the synergistic governance effect is more pronounced in boundary areas of the eastern and central regions, as well as in peripheral regions adjacent to urban agglomerations, while it is significant but weaker in boundary areas within urban agglomerations and remains insignificant in the western region. Mechanism analysis indicates that regional integration promotes synergistic pollution and carbon reduction through two primary channels. On one hand, it strengthens coordinated environmental enforcement and regulatory intensity, reducing opportunities for regulatory arbitrage across jurisdictions. On the other hand, it facilitates the diffusion of green technologies and stimulates green innovation, thereby enhancing the endogenous capacity for environmental improvement. However, the effectiveness of these mechanisms is constrained by fiscal pressure faced by local governments and by persistent market segmentation.

The marginal contributions of this study are threefold. First, it integrates regional integration with boundary environmental governance, thereby extending the spatial dimension of regional environmental governance research. Second, it incorporates green technological innovation, coordinated environmental regulation, fiscal pressure, and market segmentation into a unified analytical framework, clarifying both institutional and market-based mechanisms through which regional integration affects boundary areas. Third, it proposes targeted policy implications for strengthening cross-regional cooperation to effectively address the boundary pollution lowland problem.

Keywords: regional integration; construction of national urban agglomerations; boundary pollution; synergistic pollution and carbon reduction; local government environmental governance

下载全文