| Green development is the main theme of the current world economic development.First of all,the supply of resources is increasingly scarce and the ecological environment is deteriorating from a global perspective.Global climate has been warming,ozone layer has been destroyed,biodiversity has been reduced,acid rain has been spread,and the atmosphere,water and ocean have been polluted to varying degrees.These resource and environmental problems directly endanger human health.Human beings have realized that the current economic development model is no longer applicable to the current environmental situation.Therefore,the world economic development model urgently needs to shift to “green development model”.Second,green development is the general trend of China’s development.China has made remarkable achievements in the past 40 years of reform and opening up,but it is also faced with problems of ecological destruction and environmental pollution.Relying on excessive use of resources and extensive development at the expense of the environment for a long time,China,with relatively poor per capita natural capital,is faced with serious problems such as resource shortage and ecological deterioration,which not only directly restricts the sustainable development of China’s economic and social development,but also has a certain adverse impact on the earth’s environment.Therefore,China must transform its development model as soon as possible and form a green development mode that saves resources and protects the environment.Cities are China’s top priority in promoting green development.The concept of green development is put forward and practiced based on a profound realistic background.As the gathering place of human production,life and economic development,cities not only symbolize the frontier and advanced direction of a country’s politics,economy,culture and technology,but also represent advanced production,a better life and social progress.However,after more than 40 years of extensive and high-speed economic growth,Chinese cities are experiencing a trend of continuous net population inflow and geographic spatial expansion due to relatively advanced technology and efficient management.The increasing population and industrial expansion make the cities face more and more serious problems such as resource shortage and environmental pollution.China’s urbanization process also shows that resource and environmental problems mainly occur in urban areas,such as the destructive effects of air pollution,water pollution,solid waste pollution,noise pollution and soil pollution in urban environment cannot be ignored.Urban air pollution caused by automobile exhaust and industrial waste gas has plagued residents deeply with haze,and the outpatient rate of respiratory diseases in hospitals has increased sharply due to air pollution.The problem of urban waste is becoming more and more serious.About 2/3 of the cities in China are surrounded by waste belts.However,the low capacity of harmless disposal of urban waste in China has caused a series of serious hazards.Urban industrial waste water and waste residue,domestic sewage and garbage,pesticide and fertilizer application make soil quality decline,thus endangering people’s life and health.Therefore,cities are the top priority in promoting green development.With the improvement of living standards,urban residents’ demands and expectations for the environment have increased,and the traditional and extensive development model of “pollution first,treatment later” is no longer feasible.Green development is the inevitable choice and the fundamental way out for China’s cities.In view of this,this thesis selected 286 Chinese cities at prefecture-level and above as the research scope,and took green development as the research object from 2003 to 2019 as the research period.Firstly,the literature review on green development related research was conducted,and secondly,the Dynamic General Equilibrium(DGE)theoretical framework of urban green development was constructed based on the green development concept of co-prosperity of man and nature.And the necessity and urgency of urban green development in China are tested.Thirdly,the evaluation index system of urban green development level is constructed,and the vertical and horizontal split grade evaluation method is used to measure the green development level of Chinese cities,and the spatial and temporal differences of urban green development level are revealed.Fourthly,further explore the main influencing factors and their influencing mechanisms of China’s urban green development level.Finally,based on the above theories,measures and conclusions of influencing factors analysis,policy suggestions are put forward in the hope of providing theoretical basis for the government departments to formulate policies related to green development,and then further facilitate the construction of beautiful China.This thesis includes seven chapters,and the main contents and relevant conclusions are as follows.(1)A review of green development research.Literature review is conducted from the theoretical support,concept and connotation,measurement object and method,influence mechanism and improvement path of green development to present the progress of research on green development at home and abroad,and to clarify the focus and direction of further research.Then it is found that: Firstly,the theoretical support of green development is gradually improved and mature.Secondly,the concept and connotation of green development mostly stays at the level of discrimination,and there is a lack of relevant research on the connotation of green development by constructing mathematical models based on mainstream economic theories.Thirdly,the level of green development is widely measured by using different measurement index systems which has not formed consensus and even has cognitive deviation.Fourthly,most of the researches on the influence mechanism and promotion path of green development remain at the macro government management level and the medium industry level,and the researches are not thorough and comprehensive enough,and there are few researches at the micro level.(2)Green development based on co-prosperity of man and nature: DGE theoretical framework and urban panel test.Green development is an important support for achieving high-quality urban economic growth.It calls for co-prosperity between man and nature and win-win economic and ecological outcomes.In order to further analyze the connotation of green development,environmental resources are introduced into the Dynamic General Equilibrium theoretical framework as a special factor of production,and an endogenous growth model including the final product sector,the environment sector and the clean technology R&D sector is constructed,and the equilibrium solution of green development is deduced.Based on the panel data of 286 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2019,a set of simultaneous equations is constructed based on the material production function and the pollution emission function of the final product sector to test the necessity of green development in Chinese cities.The findings are as follows: Firstly,the greater the investment of human capital in R&D department,the higher the productivity of R&D department and human resources department,and the lower the time discount rate and risk preference of consumers,the higher the urban economic growth rate,which is more conducive to green growth.Secondly,in order to achieve green development with co-prosperity of human and nature,the growth rate of environmental resource stock must be greater than the growth rate of economic growth and consumption.The restoration and purification ability of artificial environment will play an increasingly important role in green development.Thirdly,China’s urban economic growth is mainly driven by the traditional factors of labor and material capital;For every 1% increase in economic aggregate,production pollution will increase by more than 0.743%.The proportion of agricultural industry and industrial pollution industry increases urban environmental pollution with elastic coefficient values higher than 0.290 and0.251 respectively;Environmental pollution inhibits urban economic growth in China with an elastic coefficient of more than 0.362;Environmental regulation has a pollution reduction effect,but its pollution reduction effect still has a lot of room to improve.To sum up,it is necessary and urgent for Chinese cities to take the road of green development.(3)Measurement and spatio-temporal evolution analysis of China’s urban green development level.Scientific evaluation of the level of green development and understanding of the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of the level of green development are the premise and foundation of promoting green development.Firstly,based on the Dynamic General Equilibrium theory model and its equilibrium solution of harmonious symbiosis between man and nature,index system for measuring the level of green development is constructed from three aspects of green production,green ecology and green life.Green production includes three secondary indicators such as economic growth quality,pollution emission intensity and resource utilization intensity;Green ecology includes three secondary indicators such as ecological protection,environmental governance and resource endowment;Green life includes two secondary indicators such as green behavior and living environment.Each second-level indicator contains two to five third-level indicators,and there are 25 tertiary indexes in total.Secondly,based on the panel data of 286 cities at prefecture level and above in China from 2003 to 2019,the green development level of Chinese cities is estimated by using the vertical and horizontal split grade evaluation method.Then the spatial correlation analysis,hot spot analysis,Dagum Gini coefficient decomposition method and other methods was used to multi-dimensionally reveal the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of urban green development level.The results show that: Firstly,the level of green urban development in China has been steadily improving,with the national average rising from 0.413 0 in 2003 to0.782 2 in 2019,nearly doubling over the past 16 years,but there is still much room for improvement.The number of middle and lower-level areas decreased significantly,while the number of middle and high level and high-level areas increased significantly,and clustered in the eastern and central regions in spatial distribution.Secondly,the score of green ecological index is the highest,followed by the green living index,the score of green production index is the lowest.Thirdly,the level of urban green development in China presents a typical spatial agglomeration characteristic,and the spatial distribution of urban green development level shows a positive spatial correlation of H-H type spatial agglomeration pattern and L-L type spatial agglomeration pattern.The hot spots are concentrated in the eastern coastal and central cities outside Guangdong Province.The cold spot area in western cities is shrinking,the cold spot area in northeast China is expanding,and the cold spot effect in Guangxi and Guangxi is not obvious.Fourthly,the overall,intra-regional and inter-regional differences in the level of urban green development in China show a downward trend.Among them,regional differences are the main source of regional overall differences.(4)The impact of economic growth target pressure on urban green development.Setting appropriate economic growth targets under the new normal is the key to high-quality development and green development.It is also an inevitable requirement for us to practice the concept of green development and contribute to the building of a beautiful China.Firstly,based on the background of China’s economic growth target management system,the relationship between economic growth target pressure and urban green development is theoretically analyzed.Secondly,the pressure index of economic growth target is calculated based on the data of economic growth target set in government work reports of 286 cities at prefecture level and above from 2003 to 2019.Thirdly,this thesis empirically tests the influence of economic growth target pressure on the level of green development of Chinese cities.The results show that: Firstly,there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the pressure of economic growth target and the level of urban green development in China,that is to say,when the pressure of economic growth target is moderate,it is beneficial to the improvement of the level of urban green development,but when the pressure of economic growth target is too high,it will negatively affect the level of urban green development.Secondly,the mechanism of the effect of economic growth target pressure on the level of urban green development is studied from two aspects of economic growth effect and environmental pollution effect.In terms of economic growth effect,it can be found that the excessive pressure of economic growth target makes local governments achieve the purpose of increasing economic quantity by expanding fiscal expenditure and increasing investment attraction,but brings about the decline of economic quality,which is not conducive to green development in the long run.In terms of environmental pollution effect,excessive pressure of economic growth target increases pollution emission intensity and decreases environmental governance,leading to a decline in the level of urban green development.To sum up,choosing moderate economic growth target is an important means to promote urban green development at the current stage.(5)Driving effect of national high-tech industrial development zone on urban green development.As China’s economy enters a new era,the national high-tech industrial development zones have become an important institutional arrangement for promoting the development of high-tech industries in the new era,raising the level of scientific and technological innovation,implementing the innovation-driven development strategy,and realizing high-quality and green development of the Chinese economy.In this part,the cities that established national high-tech zones before 2009 are deleted,and the cities that established national high-tech zones after 2008 are regarded as the experimental group,while the cities that have not established national high-tech zones are regarded as the control group,so the panel datas of 231 cities from 2003 to 2019 are formed.Through constructing a multi-stage DID model,this thesis empirically studies the influence and mechanism of establishing national high-tech zones on urban green development.The results show that:Firstly,on the whole,the establishment of national high-tech zones can significantly improve the level of local green development,and the results remain robust after considering a series of factors that may interfere with the estimation results.Secondly,in terms of green production,the establishment of the national high-tech zone has improved the quality of economic growth and resource utilization intensity of the city,as well as the overall green production index of the city.Thirdly,in terms of green ecology,the establishment of national high-tech zones has the effect of promoting urban environmental governance and ecological protection,and ultimately leads to the rise of the green ecological index of the city.Fourthly,in terms of green living,the national high-tech zone improves the green behavior of urban residents,improves the living environment of the city,and ultimately improves the green living index of the city.Fifthly,in terms of heterogeneity effect,the quantile regression results of city size show that the establishment of national high-tech zones in large cities,medium-sized cities and small cities all improves the level of green development of cities,and the establishment of national high-tech zones in medium-sized cities has the greatest improvement effect on the level of green development.The regression results of the regional division of the eastern,central and western regions show that the establishment of national high-tech zones promotes the green development of cities in the eastern,central and western regions,and the promotion effect on the eastern cities is greater than that of the western and central cities.Based on the above theories and empirical research,this thesis proposes countermeasures and suggestions to promote the green development level of Chinese cities from the following three aspects.They include:(1)Transforming the development mode and building a green production system;(2)Strengthen environmental protection and cultivate a green ecological environment;(3)Create the concept of green development and advocate green living and consumption.To sum up,compared with the existing research results,the innovation of this thesis can be summarized as the following aspects.(1)Different from previous studies,in chapter 3,the endogenous economic growth model of seven sectors including final product sector,environment sector and clean technology R&D sector is constructed.In the model,on one hand,A clean technology research and development department was added.A function of production pollutant emissions is incorporated into the final product sector,and the stock of environmental resources is introduced into the utility function.On the other hand,input of environmental resources in the production process and pollution multiplier effect of production and the environmental generative effect produced by artificial environmental investment and self-generating and self-purifying capacity of environmental stock are all considered.Then,the equilibrium solution of realizing green development is deduced through the model,so as to analyze the connotation of green development and reflect the relationship between environment and economic growth more systematically and comprehensively.(2)In the empirical study of chapter 3,different from previous studies directly based on the hypothesis of Environmental Kuznitz Curve,this thesis decomposes environmental resource input into economic aggregate effect and industrial structure effect,so as to avoid the difficult problem of environmental resource factor accounting.Then the industrial structure effect of environmental resources input is measured by the proportion of polluting industries,and the economic aggregate effect of environmental resources input is measured by the gross regional product.Based on the material production function and pollutant discharge function of the final product sector,the simultaneous equations are set up to empirically test the interaction between pollutant discharge,environmental regulation and economic growth in China’s urban production,which makes up for the shortcomings of the existing empirical research.(3)Compared with previous studies,according to the seven-sector Dynamic General Equilibrium theory model and its equilibrium solution,the indicator system of urban green development is constructed from three aspects: green production,green ecology and green life.Green production is reflected by three secondary indexes: economic growth quality,pollution emission intensity and resource utilization intensity.Green ecology is reflected by three secondary indexes: ecological protection,environmental governance and resource endowment.Green life is reflected by three secondary indexes: green behavior and living environment.Each second-level indicator contains two to five third-level indicators,and there are 25 tertiary indexes in total.In addition,the measurement object of this thesis covers 286 cities at prefecture-level and above in China,and the unification of indicators and methods is considered,so as to facilitate horizontal and vertical comparison of different regions.At present,most of the existing researches on the measurement of green development level remain at the national and provincial levels.A few scholars also measure the green development level of some resource-based cities or individual urban agglomerations,but few of them cover as many cities as possible,which makes it inconvenient to compare the green development level.(4)At present,most of the existing studies have studied the impact of local government competition and environmental decentralization on green development efficiency from the perspectives of government and market,few scholars reflect on the impact of economic growth targets set by the government and high-tech industrial development zones on green development based on the fact that China’s economy is growing rapidly.This thesis analyzes the influence and mechanism of local government’s economic growth target management and the establishment of national high-tech industrial development zone on urban green development from the perspective of government management.First,according to the “race for growth” official promotion incentive system in Chinese local governments,this thesis obtains the data of economic growth targets set by local governments at the beginning of each year from the government work report,the mean of the actual economic growth rate in the adjacent years is used to measure the potential value of local economic growth,then the pressure index of economic growth target is obtained by normalizing the difference between economic growth target data and local economic growth potential value.Then the influence of economic growth target pressure index on urban green development level is analyzed.This not only solves the endogenous problem,but also better reflects the effect mechanism of local government economic growth target pressure on the level of urban green development.And in China,it is closer to the reality of China to investigate the obstacles to the level of green urban development from the perspective of promotion incentive of local government officials acting on local economic growth target.Second,from the perspective of government management,this thesis analyzes the influence and its mechanism of the establishment of national high-tech industrial development zone on urban green development,which highlights the importance and urgency of implementing the innovation-driven development strategy,realizing the self-reliance and self-improvement of high-level science and technology and enhancing the level of green development with technological progress in the new period.National high-tech zones have become an important institutional arrangement to promote the development of high-tech industries,enhance the level of scientific and technological innovation,implement the innovation-driven development strategy,and achieve high-quality and green development of China’s economy in the new era.In this context,exploring the driving effect and mechanism of the establishment of national high-tech zones on urban green development in China,this not only enriches the research on the influencing factors of urban green development,but also provides a strong demonstration that national high-tech zones can contribute to urban high-quality development and green development. |
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