School of Business, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411105, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Jan 25;19(3):1312. doi: 10.3390/ijerph19031312.
China's rapid economic growth has caused serious problems, such as environmental pollution and resource exhaustion. Only by improving the green total factor productivity (GTFP) can China's economic development get out of the dual dilemmas of environmental degradation and resources exhaustion. Although environmental regulation helps to improve China's productivity, its impact on GTFP is still controversial and deserves careful investigation. In this context, this study adopts the global Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index to measure the GTFP change of China's 30 provinces over the period of 2003 to 2017 and then it uses the fixed-effect dynamic panel model to investigate the impact of environmental regulation on GTFP from the perspective of governance transformation. The results show that: (1) there is a nonlinear U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and GTFP, indicating that the Porter hypothesis is verified in China. More notably, the values of environmental regulation are still located on the left side of the U-shaped curve at present, which means that the promotional effect of environmental regulation on GTFP has not been realized fully. (2) The U-shaped relationship shows significant regional heterogeneity. The western region demonstrates the highest level of significance, followed by the eastern region. However, the U-shaped relationship is insignificant in the central region. (3) Governance transformation can not only significantly improve GTFP but it can also accelerate the realization of the Porter hypothesis by inspiring the innovative enthusiasm of enterprises, which means that governance transformation can contribute to the achievement of the improved effects of environmental regulation on GTFP. (4) R&D investment can significantly improve GTFP, where the impacts of trade openness and factor endowment were significantly negative and the influence of foreign direct investment was not significant. These conclusions provide a good reference point for optimizing the relationship between the government and the market, as well as promoting regional green and high-quality development in China.
中国的快速经济增长带来了严重的问题，如环境污染和资源枯竭。只有提高绿色全要素生产率（GTFP），中国的经济发展才能摆脱环境恶化和资源枯竭的双重困境。虽然环境规制有助于提高中国的生产力，但它对 GTFP 的影响仍存在争议，值得仔细研究。在这种情况下，本研究采用全局 Malmquist-Luenberger 生产率指数来衡量 2003 年至 2017 年期间中国 30 个省份的 GTFP 变化，然后采用固定效应动态面板模型从治理转型的角度探讨环境规制对 GTFP 的影响。结果表明：（1）环境规制与 GTFP 之间存在非线性 U 型关系，表明波特假说在中国得到验证。更值得注意的是，目前环境规制的取值仍位于 U 型曲线的左侧，这意味着环境规制对 GTFP 的促进作用尚未充分实现。（2）U 型关系具有显著的区域异质性。西部地区的显著性水平最高，其次是东部地区。然而，在中部地区，U 型关系不显著。（3）治理转型不仅可以显著提高 GTFP，而且可以通过激发企业的创新积极性来加速实现波特假说，这意味着治理转型可以为实现环境规制对 GTFP 的改善效果做出贡献。（4）R&D 投资可以显著提高 GTFP，其中贸易开放和要素禀赋的影响显著为负，外国直接投资的影响不显著。这些结论为优化政府与市场的关系，促进中国区域绿色和高质量发展提供了良好的参考。
