Institute of Big Data, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, China.
School of Mathematics and Statistics, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, China.
Front Public Health. 2024 Sep 24;12:1415309. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1415309. eCollection 2024.
Horizontal ecological compensation (HEC) has the potential to incentivize inclusive green growth in cities.
Using the multi-stage difference-in-differences (DID) method, this study examines the impact of HEC policies as a quasi-natural experiment. Panel data are analyzed; the data pertain to 87 cities in the Yangtze River Basin, from 2007 to 2020.
The findings indicate that HEC policies significantly contribute to inclusive green growth, with consistent effects across different estimators. The moderating effect test reveals that urban industrial pollution levels and green innovation are key pathways through which HEC policies influence inclusive green growth. Further analysis shows that the positive impact of HEC is more pronounced in watersheds with high marketization and in downstream regions, suggesting that HEC may exacerbate regional disparities in inclusive green growth.
This study offers insights for China and also for other developing countries seeking to promote urban inclusive green growth and achieve sustainable development goals.
横向生态补偿（HEC）有可能激励城市实现包容性绿色增长。
本研究采用多阶段差分法（DID），将 HEC 政策视为准自然实验，检验其影响。面板数据进行了分析，数据来自 2007 年至 2020 年长江流域的 87 个城市。
研究结果表明，HEC 政策对包容性绿色增长有显著贡献，不同估计方法的结果一致。调节效应检验表明，城市工业污染水平和绿色创新是 HEC 政策影响包容性绿色增长的关键途径。进一步的分析表明，在市场化程度高和下游地区，HEC 的积极影响更为显著，这表明 HEC 可能会加剧包容性绿色增长的区域差异。
本研究为中国以及其他寻求促进城市包容性绿色增长和实现可持续发展目标的发展中国家提供了启示。
