Can vertical environmental regulation become a sharp weapon in China's green development process? The moderating role of pollution dividend

Sixuan Du; Haiying Pan; Zuhan Meng; Ni Wang; Jiajia Ren

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1113457

Can vertical environmental regulation become a sharp weapon in China's green development process? The moderating role of pollution dividend

Front Public Health. 2023 Feb 15:11:1113457. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1113457. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Sixuan Du¹, Haiying Pan^{1

2

3}, Zuhan Meng¹, Ni Wang¹, Jiajia Ren¹

Affiliations

¹ Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing, China.
² Jiangsu Research Base of Yangtze Institute for Conservation and High-Quality Development, Nanjing, China.
³ Yangtze Institute for Conservation and Development, Nanjing, China.

Abstract

Optimizing the vertical environmental regulation (VER) effect of the central government and reducing the negative execution motivation of local governments have become the priority points to accelerate the green development of China. Based on the spatial Durbin model, this paper not only examines the influence of VER on green development efficiency (GDE), but also discusses the moderating effect of politically and economically motivated pollution dividend (PPD and EPD) on the relationship between them. The research results are as follows: (1) VER has a U-shaped effect on local GDE, the green governance effect of which began to appear when VER was higher than 1.561. VER has an inverted N-shaped effect on adjacent GDE. When the VER intensity lies in (0.138, 3.012), it has a positive spatial spillover effect. (2) PPD weakens the local green governance effect of VER, while EPD positively moderates it. Both of them have no significant moderating effect on it in neighboring areas. (3) Cross-regional cooperative governance moderates the short-term weakness and pollution transfer of VER, and generally facilitates the positive moderating effect of PPD and EPD. In China's two major economic belts, VER, PPD and EPD also have different performances. This study proves the important influence of local inter-governmental competition and promotion tournament on the central environmental regulation for the first time, which is of great significance for optimizing the top-level design of the central government and implementing the governance responsibility of local governments.

Keywords: green development efficiency; moderating effect; pollution dividend; spatial Durbin model; vertical environmental regulation.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

China
Climate*
Environmental Pollution
Local Government
Sustainable Development*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (Grant No. 15BJY053), Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities, Hohai University (Grant No. 2019B38014) and Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities, Hohai University (Grant No. B210207049).