Environmental Impact Assessment Review 87 (2021) 106547

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Environmental Impact Assessment Review

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/eiar

Assessing the influence of urban transportation infrastructure construction

on haze pollution in China: A case study of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region
Ming Zhang a, b, *, 1, Xiaoxiao Liu a, b, 1, Yueting Ding a, b
a
School of Economics and Management, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China
b
Center for Environmental Management and Economics Policy Research, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The construction of urban transportation infrastructure is bound to have an impact on air pollution. The purpose
Transportation infrastructure of this paper is to verify whether strengthening the construction of urban transportation infrastructure can
Fixed assets investment reduce haze pollution. The core innovation of this paper is that the fixed asset investment of urban municipal
Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region
public facilities and urban road areas are used as the proxy indicator of transportation infrastructure, which is
Haze pollution
2SLS
rarely adopted in the existing literature. The relationship between transportation infrastructure and haze
pollution is discussed, and the endogenous problems caused by variables omission are also considered. Based on
the panel data of 13 prefecture-level cities of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region from 2005 to 2016, we use the
slope index as the instrumental variable for urban transportation infrastructure, with the two-stage least squares
method (2SLS) applied. The results suggest that: (i)increasing urban transportation infrastructure investment can
significantly improve the air quality of the sample cities and mitigate haze pollution levels; (ii)After using the
instrumental variable to alleviate endogenous bias, the inhibitory effect is more obvious; (iii)Compared with the
fixed asset investment in the construction of public facilities, the increase of urban road area has a better effect on
the improvement of haze pollution. What we learned from the conclusions is: traffic management department
should strengthen the transportation infrastructure construction to realize the balance between urban con­
struction and environmental protection.

1. Introduction
Since the Reform and opening up, China’s economy has been
growing at a high speed for many years, its economic aggregate has
ranked second in the world, and its per capita income has also stepped
into the ranks of middle and high-income economies in the world.
However, the hidden environmental risks brought by extensive eco­
nomic development mode for many years have been constantly
emerging, especially the sharp decline in atmospheric environmental
quality and frequent haze. In 2013, haze pollution spread to more than
100 large and medium-sized cities in 25 provinces (Chen and Chen,
2016). The impact of wide range and serious degree haze pollution has
caused widespread concern in China, even all over the world. At the
same time, China is also in the stage of the rapid development of ur­
banization. The urban population is growing fast, which has caused a
series of “urban diseases”, such as traffic congestion and air pollution,
etc. (Chen and Chen, 2018). The accelerated development of
urbanization has led to the increasing demand for transportation, such
as logistics and commuting, while the transformation of urban trans­
portation infrastructure is relatively lagging (Fan et al., 2017). Accord­
ing to the data of wind database from 2008 to 2012, the annual average
growth rate of urban road area in China is only 7.05%, while the average
annual growth rate of the number of motor vehicles in the same period
has reached 15.3% (Sun et al., 2019b). If the speed of the newly added
road area is slower than the growth rate of the number of motor vehicles
for a long time, it may increase the traffic flow on the road and slow
down the speed of the motor vehicle or even cause traffic jams. This will
further lead to inadequate fuel combustion of motor vehicles and the
pollutant content in exhaust emissions is 2–3 times higher than that in
normal driving. Traffic congestion may aggravate urban haze pollution
to a large extent (Wrobel and Rokita, 2000).
Policies can usually be formulated in terms of demand and supply
aspects. From the demand side, restrictions to travel, number, and
purchase can be adopted to reduce the frequency of motor vehicle travel

* Corresponding author at: School of Economics and Management, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China.
E-mail address: zhangmingdlut@163.com (M. Zhang).
1
Ming Zhang and Xiaoxiao Liu are co‑lead authors to this work.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2020.106547
Received 3 November 2020; Received in revised form 8 December 2020; Accepted 22 December 2020
Available online 29 December 2020
0195-9255/© 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
M. Zhang et al.
or slow down the automotive vehicle growth speed. However, these
policies will restrain the travel demand of residents to a certain extent,
resulting in a decline in social welfare (Matas et al., 2008). It is common
knowledge that China’s urbanization level and per capita vehicle
ownership are lower than developed countries in Europe and the United
States, so it is not the best policy choice for decision-makers to apply
mitigation measures to limit haze pollution at present. From the supply
side perspective, strengthening urban transportation infrastructure can
improve the residents’ travel conditions. Investing more in urban roads
and bridges can increase the road area while the number of cars is
increasing, which could improve the smoothness of the urban roads and
the support capacity of the road network system to a certain extent, and
thus alleviate traffic congestion, and reduce the haze pollution caused by
the slow speed of motor vehicles. Previous research of many scholars has
shown that urban transportation infrastructure may have both positive
and negative effects on air quality (OECD/ECMT, 2007; Beirao et al.,
2007; Guttikunda et al., 2014; Luo et al., 2017). President Xi Jinping has
put forward the development concept of “lucid waters and lush moun­
tains are invaluable assets” in 2005, which indicates a green develop­
ment path for various industries such as transportation infrastructure
construction.
Besides, we have also noted that air pollution levels may influence
the urban transportation decisions of officers. For example, Xi’an and
Luoyang have formulated and implemented temporary and even
normalized traffic restrictions in response to heavily polluted weather in
the winter of 2017. Sun et al. (2019b) also found that urban trans­
portation decisions are likely to be affected by air pollution. Shi et al.
(2017) argued that air pollution is positively cross-correlated with urban
traffic infrastructure in the form of a power function. The formulation
and implementation of these policies show that serious air pollution is
likely to affect the local government’s traffic decision-making. The so­
lution to short-term pollution may be vehicle restrictions, while the
medium and long-term haze pollution may make policymakers
consciously improve the level of urban transportation infrastructure.
Therefore, we must solve the endogenous problem caused by the reverse
causality between urban traffic infrastructure and haze pollution to
study the relationship between them. However, the relevant literature
Fig. 1. Annual average PM2.5 concentration of 13 cities of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei during the period 2005–2016.
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Environmental Impact Assessment Review 87 (2021) 106547
only focuses on the road investment and air quality of Chinese cities at
present (Yang et al., 2018; Sun et al., 2018; Luo et al., 2017), few
scholars have studied the interaction between urban transportation
infrastructure and haze pollution, nor discussed the endogenous prob­
lems caused by the causal relationship and the omission of variables.
Located in the heart of the Bohai Rim, BTH region is the “capital
economic circle” of China, the largest and most dynamic region in
northern China, as well as one of the three most economically developed
regions in China. However, in recent years, it has become one of the
most prominent areas of haze pollution in the world. Therefore, this
paper takes BTH region as an example to study the impact of trans­
portation infrastructure on haze pollution, meanwhile, which also has a
certain reference significance for urban construction and pollution
control in other regions of China. Fig. 1 shows the severity of haze
pollution in BTH region visually in recent years. Furthermore, Fig. 2
intuitively shows the trend of the annual average PM2.5 concentration of
13 cities during the sample period.
In summary, the novelty of this study is mainly as follows: First, we
have investigated the relationship between transportation infrastructure
and haze pollution, thus the core problem in this paper is solved; Second,
this paper selects the fixed asset investment of urban municipal public
facilities and urban road area as proxy indicators of transportation
infrastructure, and further analyzes their mitigation effects on urban
haze pollution, which is used by few scholars. At the same time, we draw
on the method of Sun et al. (2019b) using the sample urban topographic
features to construct the urban slope index as an instrumental variable
for transportation infrastructure to control endogenous problems; Third,
based on BTH region, one of the three major economic growth poles in
China, which is also the region with the most serious haze pollution in
recent years and is very representative, the results of empirical analysis
have a certain significance for exploring the prevention and control of
haze in other regions of China. The above discussions of this paper
provide a new mechanism explanation and empirical evidence for the
transportation infrastructure and formulation of haze pollution control
policies.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 reviews
related literature; Section 3 introduces the econometric methods and
M. Zhang et al.
Fig. 2. Annual average PM2.5 concentration line chart of 13 sample cities during the period 2005–2016.
data processing; The fourth part is the main empirical results and
robustness tests; Finally, we draw the conclusions and give some policy
recommendations.
2. Literature review
Many scholars have conducted in-depth research on urban trans­
portation infrastructure and environmental pollution, but few of them
study the impact of urban transportation infrastructure on haze pollu­
tion. Wei and Chen (2020) suggested that urban transportation in­
frastructures playing an important role in building energy-efficient and
low-carbon cities. Xiao et al. (2020) adopted the spatial difference-in-
differences method to investigate the relation between subway devel­
opment and various air pollutants. Cheng (2019) analyzed the theoret­
ical mechanism of the influence of transportation infrastructure on the
trade environment and found the improvement of transportation infra­
structure construction can strengthen the positive effect of trade on the
environment and alleviate environmental pollution. Guttikunda et al.
(2014) focused on the impact of some interventions such as urban public
transportation facilities on emission sources and control schemes to
improve air quality in Indian cities; Luo et al. (2017) estimated the
impact of road infrastructure on PM10 based on the panel data of China’s
prefecture-level cities, and found that increasing road width can help
alleviate traffic congestion, improve fuel efficiency and reduce pollutant
emissions; Sun et al. (2018) drew a conclusion that increasing urban
transportation infrastructure investment could reduce air pollution
using the panel data of 83 cities in China. Yang et al. (2018) estimated
the impact of urban transport investment on SO2 emissions and found
that transport investment increased sulfur dioxide emission in the short
run, but it can effectively reduce emissions in the long term by adopting
the data of 30 provincial capital cities in China. However, some scholars
believe that more infrastructure construction will increase the demand
for cement, coal, steel, and other high pollution and high energy con­
sumption products, which will aggravate environmental pollution (Hao,
2014).
Just as stated in the Introduction: air pollution levels may influence
urban transportation decision makings. However, how urban environ­
mental pollution has impacted transportation infrastructure has been
ignored in most literature. In recent years, along with rapid urbanization
in China, urban road investment and road areas are also increasing.
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Environmental Impact Assessment Review 87 (2021) 106547
Because of the serious environmental pollution, the transportation
sector may change urban road investment and thus affect the trans­
portation infrastructure. However, few scholars have investigated the
impact of environmental pollution on transportation infrastructure and
consider the two-way causal relationship between them, which is the
innovation of this paper, as well as to take the endogenous problems
caused by variables omission into account.
The concentration of haze pollution is one of the core variables in
this paper. The negative effects of air pollution is a research hotspot
recently. For example, some scholars have found that air pollution has
adverse effects on the health of infants and adults (Arceo et al., 2016;
Chen et al., 2013). Air pollution not only harms people’s health but also
reduces labor supply and work efficiency (Stafford, 2015; Lichter et al.,
2017). Therefore, it is an urgent task to reduce air pollution at present,
which is the purpose of this research.
However, data acquisition is a major difficulty in this study. At
present, most of the economic research on haze pollution in China is
limited to conventional pollutants such as SO2, CO2, CO, TSP, API, AQI,
and PM10 (Ebenstein et al., 2015; Hering and Poncet, 2014). Sun et al.
(2019b) only adopted the Air Pollution Index (API) of 83 sample cities
from 2000 to 2012 as a proxy variable for air quality in empirical
research. But there are few in-depth studies on PM2.5, the culprit of haze
pollution, at the city level. Shao et al. (2016) used the data of China’s
provincial PM2.5 concentration from 1998 to 2012 to conduct related
research. At the city-level, only Wu et al. (2020) took the PM2.5 con­
centration of 13 cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as an example
to carry their study. Guo et al. (2020) used the ground-level monitoring
data to detect the trend and dynamic of PM2.5 concentrations. Chen and
Chen (2016) utilized the cross-sectional data of 74 cities moniroting
PM2.5 and PM10 of China in 2013 as the research sample. Lacking city-
level research makes it difficult to describe the characteristics of urban
haze pollution comprehensively and effectively. Therefore, we utilize
the annual PM2.5 satellite grid data calculated by Van Donkelaar et al.
(2016). The advantage of satellite observation data is that it covers a
wider range in time and space, and is more objective and accurate than
the point source data of surface monitoring, which could avoid many
measurement errors caused by human factors (Ghanem and Zhang,
2014).
Because of the special geographical location and economic status of
BTH region, it has drawn great attention from many scholars, especially
M. Zhang et al.
since this region has become a national heavy disaster area of haze
pollution. Many scholars have conducted in-depth research on air
pollution in BTH region. For example, Du and Xia (2018) used the
Difference-in-Difference method to test the implementation effect of the
collaborative haze control measures in BTH region and found neither of
the two collaborative governance measures had improved the air quality
substantially. Ding et al. (2019) verified the existence of the Environ­
mental Kuznets curve of PM2.5 pollution in BTH region of China. Using
the regression discontinuity method, Song et al. (2020) checked whether
expanding the core area of air pollution joint prevention and control in
BTH and surrounding areas is conducive to regional air quality. The
results show that the air quality improvement of “2 + 4” cities, which are
the original core area, is greater than the newly expanded 22 cities. To
stop the spread of COVID-19, China implemented a series of control
measures, which are used in Wang et al. (2020) to quantitatively esti­
mate the effect of these measures on air quality in the BTH region.
However, few scholars have focused on the impact of transportation
infrastructure on haze pollution at the city level of BTH region, which is
the innovation of this paper.
In summary, the discussion of the above literature laid a foundation
for the research of this paper. Given the limitations of existing research,
firstly, as a reference, we use the ordinary least square method (OLS) to
investigate the impact of transportation infrastructure level of 13 cities
in BTH region on haze pollution. Then the instrumental variable method
is employed to solve the problem of estimation bias caused by variables
omissions at the city level, which can measure the influence of transport
infrastructure on urban air quality more accurately.
3. Econometrics model and data description
3.1. Model specification
Based on the data of 13 cities in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei of China from
2005 to 2016, we employ two econometric approaches to empirically
analyze the impact of transportation infrastructure level on urban haze
pollution. To get more stable data series and reduce heteroscedasticity
and multicollinearity of the two models, this research also does the
logarithmic treatments on most variables. As a reference for 2SLS
method, this paper constructs the following benchmark regression
model by OLS method firstly.
lnyit = α0 + α1 lnUTI it + α2 Xit + ui + vt + εit (1)
Among them, subscripts i and t represent city and year respectively;
lny is haze pollution level,2 Where y means the annual average PM2.5
concentration; lnUTI is the level of transport infrastructure. And α0 is a
constant term; α1 represents the impact coefficient of transport infra­
structure on haze pollution, which is the core parameter we pay atten­
tion to. X denotes a series of control variables affecting haze pollution, ui
and vt are fixed effects of city and time respectively; εit is the error term.
Secondly, the endogenous problems are likely to happen when esti­
mating eq. (1) directly, for we ignore estimation bias caused by variables
omissions. Hence, an individual-invariant but time-variant fixed effect is
better to be introduced to our model. We utilize the slope index which
reflects the terrain characteristics of the sample cities as an instrumental
variable of urban transport infrastructure level, and the two-stage least
square regression (2SLS) is employed based on eqs. (2) and (3). It could
better overcome possible estimation bias or confirm the robustness of
the empirical results. To maintain consistency and continuity in this
paper, the variables and samples used in the instrumental variable
regression model are the same as the benchmark eq. (1).
lnUTIit = β0 + β1 lnSIit + β2 Yit + δi + πt + τit (2)
2
If not specified, all variables in this paper are taken as logarithm and then
included in the econometric model.
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Environmental Impact Assessment Review 87 (2021) 106547
lnyit = γ0 + γ 1 lnUTI it + γ 2 Zit + ui + vt + εit (3)
Slope index is defined as SI, which is the instrumental variable of
urban transport infrastructure. UTI denotes transportation infrastruc­
ture level. y represents annual average PM2.5 concentration of 13 sample
cities; β0 and γ 0 are constants. β1, β2, γ 1 and γ 2 are coefficients to be
estimated. δi, πt and ui, vt represents the fixed effects of the city and time
respectively in eqs. (2) and (3). τit and εit are the disturbance term of the
two equations.
In this study, we draw on the method of Sun et al. (2019a) to
construct an urban slope index based on the terrain features of sample
cities as the instrumental variable of transport infrastructure to control
the endogenous problem. Due to the following two reasons, urban slope
index can be used as an instrumental variable for transportation infra­
structure: first, slope is an important index that affects the difficulty and
unit cost of urban road construction. For different sample cities, the
complexity of the terrain slope fluctuation in the administrative region
also determines the construction form and investment cost of urban road
to a large extent. Therefore, the level of urban transportation infra­
structure will be directly affected by the slope, which can satisfy the
assumption of the correlation between effective instrument variables
and endogenous variables. Second, as one of the indicators of urban
terrain difference, slope is the inherent geographic information variable
of a city, which is equivalent to a natural experiment with natural
exogenous characteristics. Thus, it can meet the exogenous hypothesis of
effective instrument variables well. Based on this method, we use digi­
tal elevation model (DEM) raster data of all provinces and cities in
China to extract the average slope of the sample cities (Slope = elevation
difference / horizontal distance).3 To obtain more reliable empirical
results, this study constructs the slope index of 13 sample cities as
instrumental variables of transportation infrastructure to estimate eqs.
(2) and (3).
3.2. Data source and processing
Chinese authorities begin to release data on urban air pollution in
June 1996. In 2001, only 47 key environmental protection cities in
China publish air pollution index, mainly including sulfur dioxide, ni­
trogen oxide and total suspended particles. Starting in 2013, the Chinese
government began publishing data on PM2.5 and other pollutants, which
is known as the culprit of haze pollution. The PM2.5 data adopted in this
paper is derived from the global annual PM2.5 satellite grid data calcu­
lated by Van Donkelaar et al. (2016) and the research object is 13 cities
in BTH region from 2005 to 2016.
The level of transport infrastructure is the core explanatory variable
of this paper, due to the availability of data, we choose the fixed asset
investment of urban public facilities construction as its proxy variable.
The fixed asset investment of public facilities not only includes the city’s
investment in improving traffic infrastructure but also comprising other
municipal public facilities such as bridges and tunnels. As an important
expenditure of urban public services, it reflects the development direc­
tion of policies in the local government’s financial budget. Some
scholars, such as Li et al. (2016) employed urban road investment as the
proxy variable of transportation infrastructure to study the efficiency of
regional integrated transportation system, which may underestimate the
effect of transportation infrastructure. Other scholars, for instance, Liu
and Hu (2010) exploit the output index of transportation infra­
structure–urban road area as a substitute variable for urban trans­
portation infrastructure. Therefore, we also utilize this indicator to test
the robustness of our empirical results.
As two key administrative decisions of local governments, air
3
Data source: http://www.dsac.cn/DataProduct/Detail/200820. Altitude
and slope are not easy to change in a short time, so we use 2016 slope data to
proxy the sample city slope index from 2005 to 2016.
M. Zhang et al. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 87 (2021) 106547

pollution control and urban infrastructure may have certain linkage in green technologies of energy conservation and carbon emission
practical work. In the process of investment decision-making of public reduction. We apply the research and development investment to
facilities construction, it may be affected by air pollution, resulting in an proxy the level of scientific investment.
endogenous problem caused by reverse causation, leading to the error of (9) Urban greening level (lnGreen). Sun et al. (2018) believes that
parameter estimation results. So it is difficult to maintain absolute in­ the level of urban greening has both positive and negative effects
dependence and exogenous in the study of urban traffic infrastructure on air quality. On the positive side, urban green space can purify
and haze pollution. Furthermore, if the variable omission problems can the air; On the negative side, excessive investment in urban
not be solved effectively, we could not recognize the influence between greening may crowd out other expenditures on environmental
the explanatory variable and the interpreted variable. Therefore, if we protection. Per capita green area in our study is adopted to
can find the variables that are closely related to the investment of public measure the level of urban greening.
facilities construction and not connected with the missing variables, in (10) Natural climatic conditions. In this paper, the urban annual
this way, the causal impact of urban traffic infrastructure construction average wind speed (lnWind), a natural climate factor, is applied
on haze pollution can be better identified. We attempt to find an to control its impact on air quality. Besides, we also analyze the
appropriate instrument variable to control endogeneity to solve this impact of two virtual variables, native place characteristics of the
problem. This instrumental variable should not only satisfy the high official (mayor) and the urban built-up area (lnArea) on the
correlation with endogenous variables but also ensure sufficient exo­ empirical results, in the part of robust discussion of the missing
genousness, which means, it only affects the explained variables through variables.
endogenous variables.
In order to reduce the error of variable omissions as much as possible,
we also introduced a series of urban characteristic control variables that 3.3. Data description and statistical description of all variables
have a significant impact on urban haze pollution in the econometric
model, based on the previous discussion and research that is connected In this paper, we use the panel data of 13 cities in BTH Region from
with the two core variables. 2005 to 2016 to conduct the empirical research, and the sample size is
156. Among them, the data of fixed assets investment of urban munic­
(1) Economic development level (lnPGDP). The level of economic ipal public facilities and urban road area are from China Urban Con­
development directly affects environmental protection project struction Statistical Yearbook and China Economic Database (CEIC). The
funds and urban air conditions. We use per capita GDP of the slope index of sample cities is calculated from DEM raster data of
sample cities to reflect the urban economic development level provinces and cities in China. The annual average wind speed data is
(Wu et al., 2014). Meanwhile, the square term of GDP per capita computed from the daily data provided by China Meteorological Science
is employed to test the existence of the classical (Environmental Data Service Center. The data of officials’ native places and duty stations
Kuznets Curve) EKC curve. are obtained by searching the Internet, and the rest variables are from
(2) Motor vehicle ownership (lnCar). To a certain extent, the China City Statistical Yearbook, China Economic Database (CEIC) and
endogenous problem can be controlled by adding urban motor Wind database. The descriptive statistics of all variables are shown in
vehicle ownership into the econometric model. Wang (2014) also Table 1.
employed motor vehicle ownership to measure the interaction
between vehicle exhaust emissions and air quality. 4. Empirical analysis and test
(3) Population density (PD). Human activities have a certain impact
on air quality. We use the ratio of urban population to the area of 4.1. Benchmark regression analysis
urban administration region to weigh urban population density,
so as to control the possible impact of urban population on haze First, as a reference, we use the ordinary least square method (OLS)
pollution. to estimate the eq. (1). Table 2 reports the regression results based on the
(4) Environmental regulation level (lnER). The government envi­ estimation of eq. (1). It can be seen that the fixed asset investment
ronmental regulation index is adopted in this paper to control its (lnFAI) of public facilities is negative at the 1% significance level, which
impact on haze pollution, and the unit GDP discharge of waste­ means that the improvement of urban transportation infrastructure can
water is utilized to represent the environmental regulation of reduce haze pollution effectively. Therefore, without controlling the
sample cities. model’s potential endogeneity, the results in Table 2 indicate that the
(5) Industrial structure (IS). The emission of waste gas caused by the inhibition effect of transportation infrastructure on haze pollution is
extensive use of fossil energy such as coal and oil in the secondary
industry is an important source of haze pollution. We employ the Table 1
proportion of the increase of secondary industry in GDP to control Descriptive statistics of all variables.
the influence of secondary industry on haze pollution. Variable Obs Mean S.D. Min Max
(6) Public transportation (lnBus). As an important way of green
lnPM2.5 156 3.951 0.427 2.842 4.509
travel for urban residents, public transportation can reduce the lnFAI 156 11.270 1.728 6.737 15.164
exhaust emissions of private motor vehicles and alleviate air lnRA 156 2.933 0.950 1.311 5.089
pollution to a certain extent. Taking the demographic factors into lnSI 156 1.448 1.469 − 2.202 2.470
account, we use standard buses per 10,000 people to measure the lnPGDP 156 10.358 0.610 9.205 11.906
(lnPGDP)2 156 107.661 12.765 84.733 141.757
impact of public transportation on haze pollution.
lnCar 156 6.088 2.074 − 0.587 9.247
(7) The level of opening up (FDI). Foreign direct investment (FDI) PD 156 540.635 224.514 91.350 876.060
has a significant impact on the air quality of cities, manifested by lnER 156 1.426 0.881 − 1.103 2.886
the “pollution halo effect” and “pollution haven hypothesis”. The IS 156 48.130 8.960 19.260 60.170
specific effect depends on the quality and quantity of FDI. This lnBus 156 2.426 0.490 2.426 3.828
FDI 156 31.765 29.505 1.127 172.351
paper adopts the ratio of FDI to GDP to measure the level of lnRD 156 10.051 1.882 6.426 14.873
opening up. lnGreen 156 3.627 0.355 2.841 4.809
(8) Research and development investment (lnRD). The investment of lnWind 156 0.682 0.204 0.110 1.217
urban research and development may squeeze out the financial Officer 156 0.026 0.158 0 1
lnArea 156 4.916 0.968 3.555 7.258
expenditure on environmental protection, but it can improve

5
M. Zhang et al. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 87 (2021) 106547

Table 2 problems, we utilize the slope index which reflects the terrain charac­
Benchmark Eq. (1) regression results. teristics of the sample cities as an instrumental variable for the level of
lnPM2.5 (1) (2) (3) (4) urban transportation infrastructure to carry out two-stage least square
regression (2SLS). Table 3 gives the specific regression results.
lnFAI − 0.0647*** − 0.0573*** − 0.0534*** − 0.0567***
(− 3.66) (− 3.55) (− 3.23) (− 3.36) Table 3 shows the estimation results of 2SLS method. The first-stage
lnPGDP 0.6454 0.5457 0.6208 0.7462 regression results demonstrate that the coefficient of the slope index
(0.69) (0.64) (0.72) (0.86) (lnSI) is positive at 5% significance level. And the F value is much
(lnPGDP)2 − 0.0251** − 0.0091** − 0.0133** − 0.0189** greater than 10, which reveals that the instrumental variable we choose
(− 0.56) (− 0.22) (− 0.32) (− 0.45)
lnCar 0.0123*** 0.0055*** 0.0046*** 0.0078***
is highly correlated with the endogenous explanatory variable (Sun
(1.12) (0.52) (0.44) (0.71) et al., 2019b), and there is no weak instrumental variable problem. The
PD 0.0017*** 0.0019*** 0.0018*** 0.0018*** instrumental variables employed in this paper are reasonable. In the
(16.52) (18.95) (18.32) (17.67) second-stage regression results, the estimated coefficient of urban
lnER − 0.0881** − 0.0184** − 0.0049** − 0.0044**
transport infrastructure (lnFAI) is negative at the 1% significance level,
(− 2.08) (− 0.45) (− 0.12) (− 0.10)
IS 0.0106*** 0.0085*** 0.0082*** 0.0077*** which is consistent with the results estimated by OLS method in Table 2.
(4.05) (3.51) (3.40) (3.09) However, the absolute value of the estimated coefficient of lnFAI in
lnBus − 0.0064** − 0.0640** − 0.0713** − 0.0745** Table 3 is significantly greater than the regression result in Table 2. This
(− 0.15) (− 1.63) (− 1.79) (− 1.86) further illustrates that potential endogenous problems may cause the
FDI 0.0001*** 0.0002*** 0.0001*** 0.0002***
(0.17) (0.21) (0.19) (0.27)
improvement effect of urban transportation infrastructure construction
lnRD − 0.1450** − 0.1474** − 0.1523*** on haze pollution to be underestimated to a certain extent. From the
(− 5.54) (− 5.61) (− 5.70) perspective of marginal utility, the concentration of PM2.5 decreased by
lnGreen − 0.0592** − 0.0832** 7.27% for every 1% increase in fixed asset investment for public facil­
(− 1.09) (− 1.39)
ities construction. Finally, the estimated coefficients of most other
lnWind − 0.0956*
(− 0.99) control variables are consistent with the regression results in Table 2,
N 156 156 156 156 which verifies that the regression of instrumental variables in this paper
is robust and this paper has better controlled the errors of missing var­
Note: Coefficients in parentheses are t value; ***, **, and * represent the sig­
nificance levels of 1%, 5%, and 10%, respectively. Besides, the annual fixed
iables. One difference from the benchmark regression results is that the
effects and urban fixed effects are controlled. The following tables are the same. signs of the first and second-term coefficients of GDP per capita in
Table 3 are different from those in Table 2, which may be caused by the
errors of variables omission.
significant, but the degree of this effect may not be great. The first-order
coefficient of urban per capita GDP is positive, but it is not significant,
and the coefficient of the quadratic term is negative and statically sig­
nificant, which indicates the classical EKC curve in this paper has not
been realized. At the same time, the urban motor vehicle ownership of
Table 3
each column in Table 2 has exacerbated haze pollution significantly,
Eqs. (2) and (3) (2SLS) estimation results.
which is consistent with the expectation of this paper. A large number of
motor vehicle exhaust is the main reason for this phenomenon. In lnPM2.5 (1) (2) (3) (4)
Table 2, with control variables are included one by one, the estimated lnFAI − 0.0727*** − 0.0623*** − 0.0572*** − 0.0587***
coefficient and the significance level of each variable do not change (− 3.84) (− 3.93) (− 3.69) (− 3.78)
significantly, indicating that the results are robust. Specifically, the in­ lnPGDP − 0.1642 − 0.7459 − 0.7304 − 0.6439
(− 0.21) (− 1.12) (− 1.08) (− 0.96)
crease in urban population density exacerbates the haze pollution (lnPGDP)2 0.0013** 0.0575** 0.0556** 0.0516**
significantly, which is in line with our expectation. The increasing (0.03) (1.74) (1.65) (1.56)
number of urban populations leads to an increase in energy consump­ lnCar 0.0348*** 0.0082*** 0.0096*** 0.0070***
tion, which in turn causes more pollutants. Government environmental (2.38) (0.57) (0.67) (0.51)
PD 0.0018*** 0.0020*** 0.0020*** 0.0020***
regulations significantly reduce haze pollution which demonstrates that
(16.65) (19.94) (19.20) (18.82)
implementing environmental regulations is an effective way to control lnER − 0.0828** − 0.0127** − 0.0349** − 0.0390**
haze pollution. Industrial structure has a significant positive effect on (− 2.29) (− 0.32) (− 0.83) (− 0.92)
urban haze pollution, that is, the increase in the proportion of the sec­ IS 0.0092*** 0.0054*** 0.0046*** 0.0044***
ondary industry will aggravate haze pollution. This result is consistent (4.36) (3.33) (2.70) (2.49)
lnBus − 0.0145** − 0.0441** − 0.0494** − 0.0500**
with the conclusions of most existing research relating to the relation­ (− 0.30) (− 1.12) (− 1.23) (− 1.23)
ship between industrial structure and environmental pollution (Chen FDI − 0.0001*** 0.0005*** 0.0005*** 0.0005***
and Chen, 2018; Shao et al., 2019). The same as our hypothesis is that (− 0.04) (1.00) (1.10) (1.16)
urban public transportation has a significant inhibitory effect on haze lnRD − 0.2116*** − 0.2181*** − 0.2204***
(− 9.43) (− 9.95) (− 10.07)
pollution. The reason for this result may be the substitution of public
lnGreen − 0.0970** − 0.1076**
transport for private cars and taxis. Additionally, foreign direct invest­ (− 1.72) (− 1.77)
ment has a positive effect on haze pollution in the sample cities, sup­ lnWind − 0.0460**
porting the pollution haven hypothesis. Urban scientific research (− 0.59)
investment, greening level and average annual wind speed would R2 0.78 0.84 0.84 0.84
F2 28.63 47.38 52.17 51.30
significantly reduce haze pollution. It is worth mentioning that the sci­ N 156 156 156 156
entific research investment and greening level has increased the in­
vestment in pollution control. The faster the wind speed, the more
First stage regression results
conducive to the dissipation of air pollutants.
lnSI 0.1943** 0.2019** 0.1867** 0.1755**
(2.93) (2.82) (2.51) (2.40)
4.2. Instrumental variable regression analysis F1 26.82 25.33 24.95 26.06
N 156 156 156 156

Considering that the results of OLS regression may have endogenous Note: F1 and F2 represent the F statistic of the first and second stage respectively.

6
M. Zhang et al. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 87 (2021) 106547

4.3. Robustness test some extent.

4.3.1. Replace core explanatory variables 4.3.2. Control other variables

We can not only choose the investment of public facilities con­ Variables omission is an important cause of endogenous problems,
struction assets on the input side as the proxy variable of the core and appropriate instrumental variables can alleviate endogenous errors
explanatory variable—urban transport infrastructure, but also use the effectively. Considering that local governments will take urban con­
urban road area (lnRA) on the output side as another proxy variable, and struction and environmental protection into account in the process of
other variables remain constant. We investigate the public facilities in­ policy implementation, especially some recent studies have indicated
vestment is mainly from the perspective of input or cost of transport that the status, background or governing tendency of municipal officials
infrastructure, while urban road area focuses on explaining the impact are important factors affecting the effectiveness of haze pollution
of the actual results or output of transport infrastructure on urban haze governance (Guo et al., 2017; Sun et al., 2019b). Therefore, we further
pollution. control the possible impact of the following two variables on haze
The columns (1)–(3) of Table 4 demonstrate the estimation results of pollution control. First, the consistency of birthplace and duty station of
2SLS method with urban road area (lnRA) as the core explanatory var­ municipal officials is adopted as a dummy variable (Officer) to control
iable. Given the results of first-stage regression, slope index is also the tendency of main leaders to environmental protection in their
significantly positively correlated with the urban road area. As we can hometown cities. Second, considering that the urban built-up area
see in the second-stage regression results, the coefficients of urban road (lnArea) will change during the rapid development of urbanization in
area (lnRA) are also negative and statistically significant, which con­ China, which may have a certain impact on urban haze pollution and
firms the inhibition of urban traffic infrastructure construction on haze transport infrastructure construction. Therefore, we add two potential
pollution. In other words, increasing urban road area can reduce haze omitted variables based on all the previous control variables to further
pollution significantly in the sample cities. At the same time, the co­ verify the robustness of the conclusions in this paper. The estimated
efficients and signs of other main control variables are close to Table 3, results are reported in Table 5.
further confirming the robustness of previously drawn conclusions. It is The first two columns of Table 5 display the benchmark regression
worth mentioning that the absolute value of the estimated coefficients of results without considering instrument variables, and columns (3) and
lnRA in Table 4 is greater than those of lnFAI in Table 3, which indicats (4) are the results of 2SLS model. It can be seen that no matter which
that increasing urban road area has a much better effect on haze method is adopted, the regression results show that municipal leaders,
pollution improvement than pursuing more investment in fixed assets of be they serve in their native places, will have a significant inhibitory
public facilities. See from the fourth column of Table 4, the regression effect on haze pollution of the sample cities. This shows that local offi­
coefficients of lnRA are also negative and significant statistically, while cials attach importance to haze pollution governance in their home­
its absolute value is less than the first three columns. This indicates that towns, and it also reflects that municipal officials may encounter less
the endogenous problems in OLS model may underestimate the actual resistance to environmental governance when they work in their native
effect of urban transport infrastructure on ameliorating haze pollution to places. Specifically, the regression coefficients of urban built-up area are
negative and statistically significant. The possible reason may be with
the rapid development of urbanization, the fast process has promoted
Table 4 economic and social transformation, improved the environmental
Regression results of urban road area as core explanatory variable. quality demands of consumers, have encouraged the green consumption
lnPM2.5 (1)–2SLS (2)–2SLS (3)–2SLS (4)–OLS behavior of residents and green production behavior of enterprises
(Shao et al., 2019), thereby reducing haze pollution. It also shows that
lnRA − 0.2663** − 0.3002** − 0.3013** − 0.2407***
(− 5.51) (− 6.93) (− 6.85) (− 9.51) an EKC curve may appear when urbanization reaches a certain level.
lnPGDP − 0.2544 − 0.0593 0.0011 0.5088 Finally, the regression coefficients of lnFAI in each column of Table 5
(− 0.40) (− 0.10) (0.00) (0.71) have not changed significantly compared with those in Table 2 and
(lnPGDP)2 0.0317*** 0.0212*** 0.0183*** − 0.0072***
Table 3. It is indicated that although the officials’ native places and
(1.02) (0.70) (0.61) (− 0.21)
lnCar 0.0034*** 0.0035*** 0.0017*** 0.0090***
urban built-up area have further controlled the heterogeneity of the
(0.26) (0.28) (0.14) (1.07) samples, they have little impact on the basic conclusions of this paper,
PD 0.0022*** 0.0022*** 0.0022*** 0.0021*** meaning, the results are robust.
(22.0.94) (23.68) (23.38) (23.62)
lnER − 0.0603** − 0.0342*** − 0.0309*** − 0.0635***
(1.53) (− 0.92) (− 0.83) (− 1.77)
IS 0.0041*** 0.0016*** 0.0015*** 0.0015*** Table 5
(2.57) (0.98) (0.86) (0.70) Add control variables.
lnBus − 0.0770 − 0.0933*** − 0.0939*** − 0.1077***
lnPM2.5 (1)–OLS (2)–OLS (3)–2SLS (4)–2SLS
(− 2.60) (− 3.45) (− 3.45) (− 3.29)
FDI 0.0010*** 0.0013*** 0.0013*** 0.0014*** lnFAI − 0.0574*** − 0.0454*** − 0.0587*** − 0.0464***
(2.30) (2.94) (2.94) (2.18) (− 3.49) (− 3.10) (− 3.91) (− 3.13)
lnRD − 0.1047*** − 0.1017*** − 0.1031*** − 0.0671*** Officer − 0.3397* − 0.3761* − 0.3313* − 0.3380*
(− 3.46) (− 3.78) (− 3.88) (− 2.83) (− 2.95) (− 3.69) (− 4.44) (− 4.57)
lnGreen − 0.2025** − 0.2109** − 0.2226** lnArea − 0.2164*** − 0.2078***
(− 4.04) (− 3.75) (− 4.47) (− 6.43) (− 5.18)
lnWind − 0.0330* − 0.0607* Other control Yes Yes Yes Yes
(− 0.47) (− 0.79) variables
2
R 0.87 0.89 0.89 0.86 R2 0.80 0.84 0.85 0.88
F2 73.73 65.92 64.07 72.72 F2 43.48 54.78 70.72 92.13
N 156 156 156 156 N 156 156 156 156

First stage regression results First stage regression results

lnSI 0.1365*** 0.2251*** 0.2248*** – lnSI – – 0.1854* 0.1536*

(9.25) (12.80) (12.74) (2.44) (1.52)
F1 203.31 319.31 294.18 – F1 – – 25.17 23.81
N 156 156 156 – N 156 156 156 156

7
M. Zhang et al.
5. Conclusion and policy recommendations
5.1. Conclusions
Based on the panel data of 13 cities in BTH region during the period
2005–2016, this research discusses the impact of improvement of urban
transport infrastructure on haze pollution. To control the potential
endogenous problems among the variables, this paper draws on the
approach of Sun et al. (2019b) and employs urban slope index of urban
terrain characteristics as the instrumental variables for urban trans­
portation infrastructure. The main conclusions of this paper are as
follows:
First, increasing investment in transportation infrastructure can
improve air quality and alleviate haze pollution. And the improvement
effect is more obvious when the instrumental variable is adopted to
alleviate endogenous bias.
Second, we utilize the output indicator of urban transportation
infrastructure—road area to measure the level of transportation infra­
structure. Conclusions show that it can lower haze pollution levels
significantly, and its effect is better than fixed assets investment of
public facilities construction.
Third, if municipal officials serve in their native places, the
improvement of local haze pollution is more obvious; The advancement
of urbanization can accelerate the economic and social transformation,
and then alleviate urban haze pollution.
5.2. Policy recommendations
Based on the above conclusions, several relevant and straightforward
policy implications can be derived, as follows.
First, Chinese government departments should adopt appropriate
policy measures to improve urban transportation infrastructure level, it
is an effective means to improve urban air quality and reduce haze
pollution. In detail, China should try to maintain the fixed assets in­
vestment of urban public facilities construction matching the growth of
car ownership, and especially pay attention to increasing the area of
roads, bridges, etc. In this way, the smoothness of urban traffic can be
improved, air pollutants could be reduced. Therefore, the balanced
development of urban traffic and the reduction of urban haze pollution
levels can be realized.
Second, in order to solve the problems of urban diseases such as haze
pollution caused by urban traffic congestion, it is necessary to develop
modern urban agglomerations with big cities as the core cities and
surrounding small cities as satellite cities, which can share the main
functions of core cities. It is of great significance for the central gov­
ernment to accelerate the implementation of development strategies of
large-scale cities, such as transfer the non-capital functions of Beijing,
integrate the development of Yangtze River Delta, and build
Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area urban agglomeration,
etc.
Third, local governments should attach importance to the develop­
ment planning of small and medium-sized cities, changing the urban
pattern of single-center into multiple urban centers, so as to reduce the
pressure of “tidal” traffic mode of road travel, therefore alleviating
urban haze pollution level.
Last but not least, local officials should greatly support urban public
transport (e.g. buses and subways) and improve urban public trans­
portation service. At the same time, policymakers can also develop new
models of sharing economy such as shared bicycles and cars to reduce
private car uses.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declared that they have no conflicts of interest to this
work. We declare that we do not have any commercial or associative
interest that represents a conflict of interest in connection with the work
8
Environmental Impact Assessment Review 87 (2021) 106547
submitted.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (71804182). We also
would like to thank the anonymous referee for his helpful suggestions
and corrections on the earlier draft of our paper, and upon which we
have improved the content.
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