Abstract: Based on the data of 277 prefecture-level cities from 2011 to 2018, 5 leading international SPA enterprises, including UNIQLO are selected, and the DID (differences-in-differences) method is used to explore the impact of low-carbon pilot policy on location expansion of international SPA enterprises. The results show that compare with non-pilot cities, the number of location expansion of international SPA enterprises in pilot cities has significantly decreased by about 0.422 units compared with the sample average, which means that the implementation of low-carbon pilot policy has significantly reduced the location expansion behavior of international SPA enterprises. The heterogeneity results show that the inhibitory effect is mainly reflected in the sub samples of cities in eastern and central China. The conclusion indicates that SPA enterprises should gradually explore a green and sustainable development path and provides reference for the development mode of China’s local SPA enterprises.

Key words: SPA, low carbon initiative, location expansion