Investigating the effect of industrial concentration on carbon dioxide emissions in Iran's industrial sector

Industrialization is the engine of economic growth on the one hand, and on the other hand, it has the greatest effect on the emission of carbon dioxide. According to the economic literature, one of the most important factors in the emission of air pollutants is industrialization and the production structure in the industrial sector. Based on this, the aim of this research is to investigate the effect of industrial concentration on carbon dioxide emissions. This research was conducted using the panel data econometric model for 30 provinces during the period of 2010-2017. Investigating the industrial concentration index shows that the highest value is related to Bushehr province with 0.66 and the lowest value is related to Qazvin province with 0.018. In addition, at the country level, this index has increased from 0.110 in 2010 to 0.114 in 2017. The results of the model estimation show that industrial concentration, energy intensity, population and GDP have a positive and significant effect on carbon dioxide emissions. According to the research results, diversification of industrial activities in Iran's provinces is recommended based on regional advantage and the use of new production technologies to reduce energy intensity and thus reduce the emission of pollutants.