Economics School, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Nanhu Avenue 182, Wuhan 430073, China.
Department of International Cooperation, China National Academy of Governance, Dayouzhuang 100, Beijing 100091, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Dec 13;18(24):13152. doi: 10.3390/ijerph182413152.
The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) is one of the significant regions with the strongest economic vitality in China. This study focuses on environmental regulation in the eleven Greater Bay Area cities to explore the relationship between it and economic performance for the period 2000-2016. In doing so, we employ spatial panel models (including the spatial instrumental variable method) to investigate the nonlinear relationship between economic growth and environmental regulation. We confirm the existence of a U-shaped relationship between economic growth and environmental regulation in the Greater Bay Area. In the first half of the inverted U shape, the higher the economic development level, the stronger the environmental regulation strength; however, the latter begins to decrease after the peak point. The doubled-edged sword does not cut both ways. This paper verifies that technology innovation and resource consumption are two important mechanisms. Further, we find that both economic growth and environmental regulation have negative spatial externalities; innovation has a positive impact on the environmental regulation of the local city as well as surrounding cities, while resource consumption is on the contrary. In conclusion, this paper provides policy recommendations to further promote economic growth and environmental technologies, and to enhance energy efficiency in GBA.
粤港澳大湾区（GBA）是中国经济活力最强的重要区域之一。本研究聚焦于大湾区十一个城市的环境监管，以探讨 2000-2016 年期间环境监管与经济绩效之间的关系。为此，我们采用空间面板模型（包括空间工具变量法）来研究经济增长与环境监管之间的非线性关系。我们证实了大湾区经济增长与环境监管之间存在倒 U 型关系。在前半段倒 U 型中，经济发展水平越高，环境监管力度越强；然而，在达到峰值后，后者开始下降。双刃剑并非两面都有利。本文验证了技术创新和资源消耗是两个重要机制。此外，我们发现经济增长和环境监管都具有负空间外部性；创新对本地城市和周边城市的环境监管都有积极影响，而资源消耗则相反。总之，本文为进一步促进大湾区的经济增长和环境技术以及提高能源效率提供了政策建议。
