Mechanism Research and Empirical Test on How Environmental Regulation Influences Green Economic Efficiency: Based on the Perspectives of Environmental Attention and Local Government GDP Competition

Abstract

Abstract: Local government environmental attention and GDP competition among local governments play a significant moderating role in the influence of environmental regulation on green economic efficiency in China, with a black box effect, where the unique competition among Chinese local governments serves as an important perspective for studying this issue. Based on provincial panel data from China between 2005 and 2019, this paper uses the Super-SBM model to calculate green economic efficiency and uses a coefficient model to study the mechanisms of how the two complex moderators, i.e., environmental attention and GDP competition, play their respective role. The results show that the “non-linear impact” of environmental regulation on green economic efficiency is significant under both government-commanded and market-incentive environmental regulations, while participatory regulation only has a significant negative effect on green economic development in the short term and no significant long-term effect. Local government environmental attention and government GDP competition both play a complex moderating role in the influence of environmental regulation on green economic efficiency, with the “black box effect” mainly reflected in the fundamental directional differences between the moderating effects of the two on their direct impact on green economic efficiency. In addition, the level of industrial structure and market openness can significantly impede green economic efficiency, while increasing the level of openness to the outside world is conducive to the development of green economy in China.

Key words: green economic efficiency, local government environmental attention, heterogeneous environmental regulation, local government GDP competition, black box effect

Yue Li, Ren Wanyu, Jiang Lingfeng. Mechanism Research and Empirical Test on How Environmental Regulation Influences Green Economic Efficiency: Based on the Perspectives of Environmental Attention and Local Government GDP Competition[J]. Management Review, 2025, 37(1): 16-27.

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