School of Business Administration, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110167, China.
Institute of the Central China Development, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021 Sep;28(34):47668-47684. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-13808-7. Epub 2021 Apr 24.
The advancement of technological innovations may facilitate the coordinated development of the economy and ecological environment (EGE); however, few studies have noted the role of innovation efficiency (INEF) as a bridge between economic development and EGE. To fill in this gap, this paper adopts DMSP/OLS nighttime light data to measure the level of economic development and the improved data envelopment analysis model to measure INEF, establishing an index system to quantify EGE. Then we propose the panel threshold-mediating (PTM) model that combines the panel threshold model and the mediating effect model. On these bases, considering INEF as a mediator, we use this novel PTM model to empirically test the nonlinear relationship between economic development and EGE in 283 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2018. The results indicate that (1) while economic development can improve EGE, its positive impact on EGE differs with different INEF thresholds. A higher INEF threshold indicates a stronger positive effect of economic development on EGE. (2) For the entire sample, the mediating effect of INEF between economic development and EGE is not significant. However, after applying the PTM model, we found that the mediating effect of INEF was concealed by the sample population. (3) When INEF is lower than 0.2381, its complete mediating effect is verified. When INEF is higher than 0.2381, its mediating effect is not significant. On the contrary, economic development directly improves EGE. (4) Industrial agglomeration, the scale of government expenditure, residents' education level, degree of opening up, and transport infrastructure are all conducive to EGE. These findings can help cities at different INEF levels to achieve coordinated development of economy and EGE.
技术创新的进步可能促进经济和生态环境（EGE）的协调发展；然而，很少有研究注意到创新效率（INEF）作为经济发展和 EGE 之间的桥梁的作用。为了填补这一空白，本文采用 DMSP/OLS 夜间灯光数据来衡量经济发展水平，并采用改进的数据包络分析模型来衡量 INEF，建立了一个量化 EGE 的指标体系。然后，我们提出了面板门限中介（PTM）模型，该模型结合了面板门限模型和中介效应模型。在此基础上，考虑到 INEF 作为中介变量，我们使用这种新颖的 PTM 模型，从 2003 年到 2018 年，实证检验了 283 个中国城市经济发展与 EGE 之间的非线性关系。结果表明：（1）虽然经济发展可以改善 EGE，但它对 EGE 的积极影响因不同的 INEF 门槛而异。较高的 INEF 门槛意味着经济发展对 EGE 的积极影响更强。（2）对于整个样本，INEF 在经济发展和 EGE 之间的中介效应不显著。然而，在应用 PTM 模型后，我们发现 INEF 的中介效应被样本人口所掩盖。（3）当 INEF 低于 0.2381 时，验证了其完全中介效应。当 INEF 高于 0.2381 时，其中介效应不显著。相反，经济发展直接改善了 EGE。（4）产业集聚、政府支出规模、居民受教育水平、开放程度和交通基础设施都有利于 EGE。这些发现可以帮助处于不同 INEF 水平的城市实现经济和 EGE 的协调发展。
