Spatial test of collaborative treatment efficiency measurement and driving factors of air pollution in China's Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration

This paper uses the SBM model to measure the collaborative treatment efficiency (CTE) of air pollution in 27 cities in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) urban agglomeration. These cities' CTE range from 0.6806 to 0.9336, with Shanghai having the highest efficiency (0.8256 to 0.9336) and Chuzhou having the lowest efficiency (0.6806to 0.8986). According to the results of the spatial test, the CTE of air pollution in the YRD urban agglomeration has a sizable aggregation effect and a space spillover effect. This paper uses government-provided panel data and the spatial Dubin model to test the drivers of CTE. The results show that the relationship between environmental regulation intensity (IER) and CTE is “U”, with the primary term of IER being inversely linked with CTE and the second term of IER being positively connected. Specifically, the CTE will be constrained by 1 unit, and the efficiency in the adjacent space will change by 1.3517 units for every 1.2826 unit increase in IER, with the later effect reversed. The green financial investment level (GFIL) and CTE have a positive correlation, with every 1.6126 units of the increase resulting in 1 unit of CTE and 2.1027 units of adjacent cities' efficiency, demonstrating the importance of collaborative air pollution treatment.