The impact of carbon emissions trading on carbon inequality:Evidence from 269 cities in China

ZHANG Yuejun; LI Jiaxiang

Abstract：The ability of carbon emissions trading to address carbon inequality is crucial for maintaining social justice and realizing sustainable development.Based on the panel data of 269 prefecture-level cities in China from 2007 to 2017,this paper evaluates the impact of China's carbon emissions trading policy on carbon inequality by using the"difference in differences"method and the"difference in differences"method combined with propensity score matching.The results show that carbon emissions trading significantly mitigates inter-city carbon inequality in pilot cities but has no significant effect on inter-district and county carbon inequality within pilot cities;the mitigation effect of carbon emissions trading is stronger in cities with higher administrative levels and marketization levels;and carbon emissions trading inhibit the further exacerbation of carbon inequality by lowering carbon emission intensity.Based on the panel data of 269 prefecture-level cities in China from 2007 to 2017,this paper evaluates the impact of China's carbon emissions trading policy on carbon inequality using difference in differences as well as difference in differences combined with propensity score matching,and the results show that:Carbon emissions trading significantly mitigates inter-city carbon inequality,while it has no significant effect on inter-district and county carbon inequality;The mitigating effect of carbon emissions trading is stronger in the cities with higher administrative and marketization levels;Carbon emissions trading inhibits the further exacerbation of carbon inequality by lowering carbon intensity.