Can city brand reduce urban air pollution? — An empirical research based on “National Civilized City” in China

Brand contains great value in modern economic society. The selection of “National Civilized City” (NCC) in China is a good opportunity to study the city brand value. This paper takes the certain cities selected as NCC as a quasi-natural experiment, using multi-period Difference-in-Difference (DID), Propensity Score Matching (PSM-DID), and instrumental variable (IV) method to empirically analyze the impact of NCC selection on urban air pollution over the period 2011–2019. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) being selected as the “National Civilized City” can significantly reduce the concentration of PM2.5, SO2, CO2, and the estimated results of PSM-DID and IV method are basically consistent with the benchmark regression results; (2) Mechanism analysis indicates that NCC selection can reduce air pollution by promoting technological innovation and industrial structure upgrading; (3) with the expansion of urban scale and the improvement of economic development, the effect of civilized cities on air pollution governance is also enhanced. The conclusions of this paper can provide academic support for local governments' actions to improve city brand value, and provide corresponding policy implications for different types cities to build a civilized, environmental friendly and livable urban environment.