Effects of Distribution Patterns of Industrial Enterprises on Pm2.5 Pollution from a Multi-Spatial Scale Perspective

Industrial activities contribute significantly to the increase in the concentration of inhalable particles in the atmosphere. However, the environmental externalities of industrial activities for the concentration of PM2.5 from the perspective of multi-scale industrial activities remain in a "black box." The paper proposes a theoretical framework to combine the effect of spatial scales with the externality effects of the agglomeration, technology, and structure distribution of industrial locational patterns for PM2.5 concentration. The empirical results based on a full-sample enterprises database in China quantifying externalities of industrial distribution for PM2.5 at multiple spatial scales show that the spillover effect of either positive or negative externalities of industrial spatial distribution for PM2.5 concentration is stronger than the direct effect. The agglomeration distribution of industrial enterprises aggravates PM2.5 pollution, especially for the agglomeration of a high proportion of highly polluting enterprises. On the other hand, the variety structure of industrial enterprises improves the air quality.Specifically, related variety should be strengthened at a smaller spatial scale to improve production efficiency by forming complementary production chains in the agglomerations, whereas at a larger geographic range, the unrelated variety should be further reinforced to enrich the knowledge base for green technology innovations and PM2.5 mitigation strategies. The results call for close cooperation and refined management of multi-level governments across regions to update the variety of industrial agglomerations at different spatial scales