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This study investigates the impacts of carbon pricing policies on firms' greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We include two carbon pricing policies: carbon tax and emission trading scheme (ETS) at national and sub-national (province) levels, measured as policy existence (binary variable) and carbon price (continuous variable). Firms' GHG emissions are measured as total emissions and emission intensity. Using unique recent firm-level data from 2010 to 2021 from three East Asia countries (Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK), and the People's Republic of China (PRC)), we obtain the following key findings. First, the national carbon pricing policy significantly reduced firms' GHG emissions and GHG emission intensity in Japan and the ROK. The greater the carbon price, the greater the impact. Second, the subnational carbon pricing policies implemented in two provinces of Japan (Saitama and Tokyo) decreased firms' GHG emissions. Third, heavy industry sectors such as energy, utilities, and industrials experienced a substantial decrease in GHG emission intensity due to the carbon pricing policy. Finally, our main results are robust to different model specifications and various measures of firms' GHG emissions. Although literature studying the ex-post impact of carbon pricing on emissions at country and sector-level is abundant, this paper contributes to the existing literature providing empirical evidence of the impact of carbon pricing policies on firms' emissions using firm-level data, which is highly limited especially in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout East Asia, the growth process and its sources are changing in a number of important respects, especially for middle and higher income economies. Growth will increasingly come from the strength of innovative activities in these economies instead of factor accumulation as in the past. Recent research suggests that such innovative activities, especially in producer services and the creative industries, are concentrated in high-tech clusters in globally linked cities. The development of such cities is influenced by ongoing structural changes and initiatives by governments and firms. This paper explores these issues and suggests how policies and institutions can induce and furnish an urban environment that supports innovative activities that in turn lead to rapid growth. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]