FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND CARBON EMISSIONS IN CHINESE PROVINCES: A SPATIAL PANEL DATA ANALYSIS

Using the panel data of 30 provinces in China between 1997 and 2011, we employed the extended STIRPAT model and spatial panel econometrics methods to investigate the relationship between financial development and carbon emissions and test the influence of financial development as well as other factors on provincial carbon emissions per capita among Chinese provinces. The estimation results show that: (i) spatial spillover effects play a role in provincial carbon emissions in China; and (ii) the sum of technical effect and structure effect of financial development surpass its' sum of direct effect and wealth effect in China, which suggests that financial development reduces carbon emissions per capita. China should pay more attention to the integration of green finance policy and environmental regulation, and establish appropriate mechanisms to strengthen inter-provincial interaction and coordinated development.