Cash, commute and carbon: How does income affect carbon emissions through transportation?

Description

As a pivotal economic factor, the choice of transportation mode exerts a significant influence on both residents’ income changes and urban carbon emissions. Utilizing China’s urban panel data from 2000 to 2023 and adopting a residents’ travel behavior perspective, this study employs Fixed Effects Ordinary Least Squares (FE-OLS) estimation, Instrumental Variables (IV) methods, and Spatial Regression approaches to analyze the mechanisms and effects of changes in residents’ income levels on urban per capita carbon emissions. Furthermore, an urban smart transportation level variable is constructed to examine the spatial mediating effect of smart transportation.The findings indicate that an increase in urban residents’ income contributes to higher per capita carbon emissions. Mechanism analysis reveals that rising income reduces carbon emissions by encouraging greater use of public transit and less reliance on taxis, yet simultaneously increases emissions through higher private vehicle usage. The moderating effect suggests that widening income disparity amplifies the mediating effects of public and private transportation, while attenuating the mediating effect of taxi travel. Geospatial analysis demonstrates that rising resident income can facilitate carbon emission reduction by enhancing urban smart transportation development. This study enriches the literature on urban carbon mitigation and offers significant implications for the advancement of green cities, transportation strategies, and urban policy formulation.

Institutions

• Hubei University

  Hubei, Wuhan

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