Does environmental regulation narrow the north-south economic gap ? - Empirical evidence based on panel data of 285 prefecture-level cities.

The economic differentiation between the north and the south of China, as a long-standing phenomenon of unbalanced regional economic development, is aggravating, and has gradually become a resistance to the construction of a new development pattern and regional coordinated development. Most of the existing studies focus on the comparison of differences between the Eastern, Central and Western regions of China, but there is little discussion on the economic gap between China's North-South economy. In addition, through the literature review, no attention has been paid to the environmental regulation factor that leads to the economic gap between the North and the South. In view of this, the study constructs a benchmark regression model and a non-linear regression model based on the balanced panel data of 285 cities in China from 2004 to 2019, explores the role that environmental regulation plays in the widening of China's North-South economy gap. The results show that, firstly, environmental regulation is significantly conducive to narrowing the economic gap between the North and the South; In addition, with the greater intensity of environmental regulation, the economic gap shows a trend of "narrowing first, expanding then", that is, There exists positive U-shaped nonlinear relationship between them. Finally, the heterogeneity of urban scale leads to significant differences in the position and shape of the positive U-shaped curve, which exists between environmental regulation and China's North-South economy gap. The test results shows that the inflection point level of the U-shaped curve in the North is higher than that in the South. Based on this, the study proposes to adjust environmental policies accordingly under regional differentiated conditions, increase financial investment in improving environmental regulation tools and promote coordinated environmental governance in the North and South regions, to promote regional coordinated and sustainable development, provide empirical evidence and theoretical reference to improve people's livelihood and well-being and ultimately achieve the goal of common prosperity. • Based on the balanced panel data of 285 cities in China from 2004 to 2019, the study constructs a benchmark regression model and a non-linear regression model to explore the impact of environmental regulation on the economic gap between the North and the South. • From the perspective of direct effect, environmental regulation has a significant positive impact on narrowing the economic gap between the North and the South; From the perspective of nonlinear effect, there is a positive U-shaped relationship between the intensity of environmental regulation and the trend of the North-South economic gap, that is, the North-South economic gap shows an evolution trend of convergence and expansion with the increase of the intensity of environmental regulation. • The heterogeneity of urban scale leads to significant differences in the position and shape of the positive U-shaped curve between environmental regulation and the economic gap between the North and the South. • The inflection point level of the U-shaped curve in the North is higher than that in the South. Based on this, the study proposes to formulate differentiated environmental regulation policies according to local conditions, with a view to providing empirical evidence and theoretical reference for promoting regional coordinated and sustainable development, improving people's well-being, and ultimately achieving the goal of common prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]