The impact of the promotion and application of new energy vehicles on inter-city collaborative governance of emission reduction

Based on panel data from 287 prefecture-level and above cities during 2003–2023, this paper employs the promotion and application new energy vehicles (PANEVs) policy as a quasi-natural experiment to evaluate its impact on inter-city collaborative governance of emission reduction (ICGER) using a difference-in-differences model. The study finds that PANEVs significantly enhance ICGER, with this effect being more pronounced in cities characterized by large road freight volumes, extensive built-up areas, small population sizes, and low population densities. Mechanism tests reveal that the policy indirectly promotes ICGER through three pathways: improving economic development quality, expanding potential market size, and enhancing innovation level, among which potential market size and innovation level exhibit complete mediating effects. The industrial structure upgrading exerts a significantly positive moderating effect on policy outcomes. This paper expands the research on the environmental effects of new energy vehicles through the lens of cross-regional collaborative governance, providing empirical evidence for the differentiated advancement of new energy vehicle policies.