Reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions is one of the biggest challenges for global sustainable development, in which economic growth characterized by industrialization plays a formidable role. We innovatively adopted the input and output (I-O) table of 41 countries released by World I-O Database to determine the industrial structure change and analyze its impact on CO₂ emission evolution by developing a cross-country panel model. The empirical results show that industrial structure change has a significantly negative effect on CO₂ emissions; to be specific, 0.1 unit increase in the linkage of manufacturing sector and service sector will lead to a decrease of 0.94 metric tons per capita CO₂ emissions, indicating that upgrading industrial structure contributes to carbon mitigation and sustainable development. Further, urbanization, technology and trade openness have significantly negative impact on CO₂ emissions, while economy growth and energy use take positive impacts. In particular, a 1% increase in per capita income will contribute to an increase of 8.6 metric tons per capita CO₂ emissions. However, the effect of industrial structure on environment degradation is moderated by technology level. These findings fill the gaps of previous literature and provide valuable references for effective policies to mitigate CO₂ emissions and achieve sustainable development.

A scientific understanding of the real estate sector’s role in the national economy is essential for facilitating reasonable and effective regulation and promoting economic development. By analyzing panel data from a sample of 67 countries between 2010 and 2018, we examine the role of the real estate sector in different countries and its determinants. This empirical study yields three main findings. Firstly, there is a strong correlation between the real estate sector and the financial services sector, the construction industry, as well as wholesale and retail trade. Notably, China’s real estate sector exhibits relatively high direct consumption of financial service activities compared to other major countries. Secondly, there is a transition trend in both the input and output of the real estate sector from primary and secondary industries towards service-oriented industries. Lastly, key determinants influencing the economic effects of the real estate sector in a country include economic growth, current national income level, expense structure of the economy, aging population, as well as urbanization speed.