Official Turnover and Embodied Carbon Emissions: Evidence From Industrial Linkages in China's Prefecture‐Level Cities

ABSTRACT Carbon emission is the most critical environmental pollution issue today. However, regional trade and industrial linkages have changed the traditional carbon emission pattern. As a public product with strong negative externalities, carbon emissions inevitably lead to severe consequences if the market is allowed to adjust itself. Therefore, public policies made by government officials have an important role in environmental governance and emission reduction. This paper uses China's Multi‐regional Input‐Output (MRIO) table and official turnover data of 269 prefecture‐level cities in China for the empirical test. The results show that official turnover has a significant positive impact on embodied carbon emissions between regions. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the inter‐provincial turnover of officials and the turnover between regional central cities results in more significant embodied carbon emissions. Further research finds that the longer the officials stay in their previous positions or as new local government leaders, the greater the embodied carbon emissions caused by their turnover. In addition, the turnover of officials affects interregional embodied carbon emissions by promoting regional entrepreneurship, venture capital and structure transformation of industries. The findings of this paper provide essential enlightenment for optimizing Chinese local government governance and promoting the transformation of the economic development mode.