ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Economics and Management
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1630688
Talent agglomeration and carbon emissions in China: promotive effect or inhibitory effect? Analysis on heterogeneous bilateral stochastic frontier model
Provisionally accepted
- 1Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing, China
- 2the People’s Hospital of Danyang, Affiliated Danyang Hospital of Nantong University, Danyang, China
- 3School of Public Administration,, Nanjing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
As the dual imperatives of carbon reduction and economic expansion gain prominence, the pursuit of high-quality development has taken on greater urgency, with talent agglomeration emerging as a critical driving force. However, the specific impact of talent agglomeration on carbon emissions remains unclear. Based on panel data from 30 Chinese provinces spanning 2013 to 2023, this study employs a two-tier stochastic frontier model to identify and decompose the dual impacts of talent agglomeration on carbon emissions. The findings reveal:(1) Talent agglomeration exerts asymmetric bilateral effects, with the inhibitory effect dominating the promotive effect and producing an overall decline in emissions.(2) Over the past decade, the promotive channel increased emissions by 16.2%, whereas the inhibitory channel reduced them by 43.8%, resulting in a net decrease of 27.6% relative to the frontier level, further confirming that the inhibitory effect dominates. (3) The net effect has been predominantly negative, becoming more pronounced after 2020 following a brief uptick in 2014; spatially, the western region achieved the largest reductions, followed by the central and eastern regions, indicating clear spatiotemporal heterogeneity. (4) Heterogeneity analysis further reveals that larger net reductions occur at higher levels of talent agglomeration (≥40%), higher economic development (70–100%), and under stricter environmental regulation, whereas at low urbanization stages the promotive effect dominates but shifts toward inhibition as urbanization deepens. This research contributes to more precise carbon reduction policy recommendations, supporting the dual objectives of economic growth and environmental sustainability.
Keywords: Talent agglomeration, carbon emissions, bilateral stochastic frontier model, Promotive effect, Heterogeneous characteristics
Received: 21 May 2025; Accepted: 20 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Yang, Wang, Liu, Ren and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yue Zhang, Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.