How Does Industrial Intelligentization Promote the Synergistic Reduction of Urban Pollution and Carbon Emissions? Evidence from Macro- and Micro-Level Mechanisms

<title>Abstract</title> <p> Reconciling pollution abatement with carbon mitigation is central to China's green transition, yet the role of industrial intelligentization in advancing this synergy remains poorly understood. Drawing on panel data for 272 Chinese prefecture-level cities over 2011–2022, this study constructs a composite index of industrial intelligentization along three dimensions—intelligentization conditions, applications, and technologies—and empirically examines how it shapes the synergistic reduction of urban pollution and carbon emissions through both macro- and micro-level channels. Three main findings emerge. First, industrial intelligentization significantly enhances the synergistic reduction of urban pollution and carbon emissions, and this result is robust to a battery of robustness checks and to instrumental-variable estimation that addresses endogeneity. Second, mechanism tests show that at the macro level industrial intelligentization operates by raising urban green innovation, upgrading the industrial structure, and strengthening public environmental awareness, whereas at the micro level it works by reinforcing corporate environmental responsibility and easing firm-level information asymmetry. Third, the effect is heterogeneous: it is more pronounced in eastern and provincial-capital cities, in cities with higher economic development or lower industrialization, in cities with stronger environmental regulation or greater fiscal decentralization, and in non-resource-based and high-skill cities. By linking macro-level industrial and social channels to micro-level firm behavior, the study provides new evidence on the environmental dividends of industrial intelligentization and offers policy insights for building an intelligence-driven system of environmental governance. <bold>JEL Classification:</bold> O33; Q55; Q56; R11 </p>