Logistics Standardisation and Urban Air Quality Improvement: Evidence from Chinese Cities

As urban air pollution control and efforts to improve the quality and efficiency of logistics systems advance in parallel, optimizing logistics operations to improve environmental quality is of considerable theoretical and practical significance. Using China’s logistics standardisation (LS) pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment, we employ a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) model to examine its effects on urban PM2.5 concentrations, along with heterogeneity, potential channels, and coordination across multiple development objectives. The results indicate that the LS pilot policy significantly lowers urban PM2.5 concentrations, a finding that holds across multiple robustness checks. The reduction is more pronounced in inland cities and those with less developed green finance. Channel analysis indicates that green transportation technology innovation, improved energy use efficiency, and increased local government attention to smart transportation are potential channels through which the LS pilot policy improves urban air quality. Further analysis suggests that the environmental benefits of LS extend beyond air pollution control. The policy significantly reduces urban CO2 emissions, improves the degree of coupling coordination between PM2.5 and CO2 reduction, and increases the overall coupling coordination degree across four subsystems: pollution reduction, carbon reduction, urban greening, and economic growth. By examining urban air quality, this study broadens the evidence on the environmental effects of LS and highlights its potential contribution to pollution control, carbon reduction, and coordinated urban green development.