Research On The Impact Of Environmental Regulation On China's Green Economic Growth From The Perspective Of Resource Dependence

At present,China has a serious environmental problem,and the trend of ecosystem deterioration has not been completely reversed,and there are great challenges in building an ecological civilization.Environmental problems,characterized by resource depletion,disorderly use of energy,climate warming,and haze pollution,occur frequently,making it difficult to sustain an extensive model of development.Despite the increasing environmental regulation in recent years,traditional air pollutants such as SO₂ and NO_Xare still at a high level in the world.At the same time,it should be noted that although China has abundant natural resources of various types and total amount,the basic situation is not optimistic—low per capita occupancy,low development and utilization efficiency,and unsustainable resource consumption.Therefore,how to effectively play the role of environmental regulation to deal with environmental pollution,and how to rationally utilize natural resource endowment to realize optimal allocation of resources and ultimately promote green economic growth is an important issue to be solved urgently in the process of China's economic and social development.This paper focuses on the relationship between environmental regulation(ER),resource dependence(RD),and green economic growth(GEG)in Chinese cities.First of all,we have to define the connotation of ER,RD,and GEG,based on the construction of prefectural level evaluation index system of GEG,proposing improved data envelopment analysis(DEA)method—Metafrontier–Global–SBM(Slack-based Measure)super–efficiency model to measure China's 286 cities'green economy performance index(GEPI)and green economy growth index(GEGI)and its components.The improved fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method to measure the ER composite index,and RD index is selected;Secondly,the nonlinear relationship Hypothesis 1 between ER and GEG and Hypothesis 2 of spatial spillover and feedback effect is tested by using the general panel data regression model and the selected spatial econometric model.Finally,from the perspective of RD to dig deeper into the mechanism of action of ER on GEG.Hypothesis3 of the mediating transmission mechanism“ER?RD?GEG”is tested,and further analysis of the“ER?RD?Eight conduction variables?GEG”two–step transmission mechanism Hypothesis 4 is tested.This paper tries to find a new way to break the“resource curse”of China's GEG by ER from the aspects of the theoretical framework and empirical test.This paper draws the following conclusions:(1)It can be seen from the pattern distribution evolution of the comprehensive index of ER of 286 prefecture-level cities that,during the study period,the ER shows an increasing trend year by year,and the eastern coastal areas are generally higher than that of other regions.From the regional perspective of GEPI,its performance is the best in the western region,followed by the eastern and central region.According to city type,resource–based cities are slightly higher than non–resource–based cities.At the provincial level,Shanghai and Guangdong led the way,while Chongqing and Qinghai were lower.From the perspective of the evolution of the distribution trend of prefecture–level cities,GEPI has been greatly improved over time,and the most obvious improvement has been seen in northeast China and eastern coastal cities.Based on the Metafrontier–Malmquist index and its decomposition technique,the GEGI is decomposed into each city in the group for the current technological frontier the“catch–up effect”(EC),the“innovation effect”(BPC),and the“technology leader transfer effect”(TGC).We found that the primary driver of GEG in China is caused by the growth of the BPC,is within the group of“innovation effect”of cities;EC also showed a promoting effect,reflecting the“catch–up effect”of cities within the group on the current technological frontier.However,TGC is not conducive to the improvement of GEGI,that is,the“technology leader transfer effect”relative to the global frontier has not played its due role.(2)Hypothesis 1 that there is a U type nonlinear relation between ER and GEG holds,namely the weaker ER intensity have an inhibitory effect on GEG.When it exceeds a certain threshold,it becomes a stimulant.Through the test of city–type heterogeneity,it is found that compared with non–resource–based cities,the“U–shaped curve”reaches the extreme point earlier,that is,with the increase of ER,ER policies in resource–based cities are more likely to have a positive impact on the GEG.(3)The elasticity of the non–spatial panel regression coefficient is overestimated in the sample of the population and resource–based cities,and there is a feedback effect in the direct effect.The conclusions show that the spillover effect of the first and the second term of ER on GEG in the population sample is 3.2 times the direct effect.The feedback effect of the first term and the second term of ER on GEG is 1.67%and 1.62%of the direct effect,respectively,which verifies Hypothesis 2.At the same time,Hypothesis 1 is also valid in the estimation of spatial econometric model and robustness test.(4)The results show that the mediating effect is confirmed,that is,the transmission mechanism of“ER?RD?GEG”is established,which verifies Hypothesis 3.In the results of the city–type heterogeneity test,the effect of RD on GEG is“resource curse”in resource–based cities and“resource gospel”in non–resource–based cities,respectively.(5)The indicators of advanced industrial structure,rationalization of industrial structure,quality of government system,opening up to the outside world,human capital,scientific and technological innovation,development of manufacturing industry,and material capital are incorporated into the analytical framework.A two-step transmission mechanism of“ER?RD?Eight conduction variables?GEG”Hypothesis 4 is verified.We found that different factors played different roles in the relationship between ER,RD,and GEG,and different factors played different roles in the test results of heterogeneity.The innovation of this study can be summarized as the following three points:First,for the measurement of GEG,the SBM model and metafrontier technology are used to consider the advantages of the heterogeneity of undesirable output and technology set,and at the same time,the method of global reference is taken into account to construct a new frontier as a unified benchmark for measurement.Second,the single–dimensional economic growth in Chinese cities has been elevated to the level of GEG,and its internal influencing factors have been analyzed from the perspective of GEGI and its decomposition term while the GEPI has been examined.Third,from the perspective of resource dependence,ER,RD,and GEG are integrated into a unified analytical framework,and the transmission mechanism of the“resource curse”or“resource gospel”effect is studied by dividing the types of resource–based and non–resource-based cities.