Agglomeration Production, Industry Association and Carbon Emission Performance: Based on Spatial Analysis

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This research poses the interesting interrelations of agglomeration production and industrial distribution with carbon emission patterns within a spatial analysis. It is accepted that the agglomeration in geographic space has a positive impact on economic efficiency, but there are few references on environmental performance and no attention is paid to the impact of economic and trade links between regions within a country on environmental transfer. For instance, it is assumed that companies in the upstream region bear more environmental pressures and risks than downstream companies.

The paper uses a spatial fixed-effect model as it is believed that when the regression analysis is limited to some specific individuals the fixed-effect model is a better choice. It concludes that the current trade model is unsustainable for central and western Chinese regions, having the central government to set an emission reduction targets in various regions. It also reinforces agglomeration externalities to improve carbon emission performance.

Nevertheless, it is not considered how the reduction in carbon emission can be achieved, either with taxes or direct limits. No mention to Coase is made. The scope of references is not sufficiently varied and diverse. Some other references should be considered. Finally, without detailing a complete contingency plan, it would be interesting to point briefly how a pandemic could modify the results. 

Author Response

please see  the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript reports on a model of agglomeration and impact on carbon emissions.

line 58 - is there a threshold i.e. number of enterprises over which an area is defined as being an agglomeration  

line 58 'western developed country governments generally tend to concentrate enterprises in agglomeration  areas for unified environmental regulation' - needs a reference

line 111 'One is geographical adjacency. On the one hand, through the spread of the surface, watersheds, and airflows, the "environmental dumping" problem of geographically adjacent areas is more serious, and there is a significant environmental spillover effect between geographically adjacent areas.' - ok but depends on the pollutant and the nature of the pathway by which it is transported.  how were carbon emissions accounted for

equation 1 - what does W denote?  what are the other control variables? 

a worked example of equations 1 and 2 referencing a summary dataset for those data sources described at the top of page 7 would be useful to ascertain the functioning of the model

was a sensitivity analysis performed?

line 178 the dummy variable (s) of the degree of agglomeration appears to be based on the number of persons in non agricultural employment.  is this the means by which agglomeration is defined in the model?  in which case line 58 where agglomeration is first introduced and discussed in the context of enterprises needs additional text to highlight the potential for utilising employment as a surrogate indicator.  has this been performed in studies elsewhere?

line 294 - 'Energy consumption structure: expressed as the proportion of coal consumption' why was only coal use considered?  

line 311 'China's carbon emissions performance in 2007-2018 - is this total emissions or that of specific sectors?

line 442 - 'Energy structure (ES) has a significant negative impact on carbon emissions performance, indicating that reducing the proportion of coal consumption and promoting the industrial use of clean and new energy are important ways to improve carbon emission performance.' ok but this is nothing new

501 'the specialization agglomeration externalities and diversified agglomeration externalities can exist at the same time, which depends on the appropriate degree of agglomeration.' - are there optimal degrees of agglomeration that can be recommended for given locations base on their characteristics?

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

thank you for the response to the comments provided, they have been addressed

Author Response

"Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf