Promoting green development through improving fairness: urban-rural income gap and the synergistic reduction of pollution and carbon emission
摘要
Intervallic urban-rural income gap (URIG) poses a threat to the synergistic reduction of pollution and carbon emission (SRPC) in pursuit of sustainable development. However, prior studies mainly focused on URIG’s impact on single environmental issues and ignored spatiotemporal heterogeneity. In order to fill above-mentioned research gaps, our research delves into the impact of the URIG and the SRPC, and further analyzes how digital finance and education moderate this effect. Moreover, the geographical and temporal weighted regression (GTWR) model is adopted to examine the spatial-temporal heterogeneity of the influence of the URIG on the SRPC. The results indicate that the URIG significantly hinders the SRPC. However, when the URIG is at a reasonable stage, it becomes a stepping stone for the SRPC in the upstream of Yellow River Basin (YRB). Moreover, it is found that digital finance and education can diffuse the inhibiting effect from the URIG. This study aims to put forward practical recommendations on how to balance the relationship between income equality and environmental protection, thereby achieving high-quality development in YRB.