Urban-rural income gap and carbon emission efficiency: Empirical evidence from 282 cities in China

Abstract To achieve common prosperity and address global climate change, local governments have actively carried out a series of policy to explore and practice aimed at narrowing the urban-rural income gap and improving carbon emission efficiency. However, a critical question that warrants in-depth exploration is whether the urban-rural income gap affects urban carbon emission efficiency. Therefore, Utilizing Chinese 282 prefecture-level cities panel data from 2007–2019, this paper empirically investigates the impact of the urban-rural income gap on carbon emission efficiency. The main findings revealed that the impact of the urban-rural income gap on urban carbon emission efficiency exhibits a typical "U"-shaped characteristic, while industrial agglomeration and environmental regulation play significant channel and mechanism roles respectively. Additionally, this study further showed that the impact of the urban-rural income gap on urban carbon emission efficiency has spatial effects. Based on these conclusions, this paper proposes the following policy recommendations. First, corresponding measures should be taken to promote industrial agglomeration and strengthen environmental regulations, thereby fostering a positive impact of the urban-rural income gap on the enhancement of carbon emission efficiency. Second, different regions, particularly those in the central and western areas, should implement corresponding regional economic development strategies to increase the income of rural residents, it is enabling the urban-rural income disparity in various regions to play a role in promoting the enhancement of carbon emission efficiency.