Manufacturing the urban rift: Manufacturing as a moderator of the urbanization–CO₂ emissions relationship, 2000–2013

Previous research suggests that the urbanization–CO₂ emissions relationship is contingent on various structural factors. We aim to advance this area of scholarship by investigating how manufacturing influences urbanization’s association with national-level CO₂ emissions. In particular, we focus on the extent to which manufacturing is a moderator of the urbanization–CO₂ emissions relationship. To do so, we use an interaction between standard measures of urbanization and manufacturing in panel models of national-level anthropogenic CO₂ emissions for an overall global sample as well as various reduced samples of nations defined by income level and region. We find that emissions are positively associated with this interaction for our global sample as well as for samples restricted to high-income nations and for nations in Asia. These results highlight the role that the organization of manufacturing and production plays in shaping national economies and, in turn, the urbanization–CO₂ emissions relationship in different regional and structural contexts.