Research On The Impact Of Environmental Regulation On Green Consumption In China

Since the industrial revolution,ecological crises such as resource depletion,environmental degradation,and climate warming have seriously restricted the sustainable development of human society.Green consumption,guided by the theory of green and low carbon,can help to minimize the consumption of energy and other natural resources,and the production of waste pollutants,while considering the fairness and coordination in the consumption process.It is undoubtedly an important means to promote the green transformation of the economy and sustainable development of society.However,there are still many shortcomings in the development of green consumption in China.This research systematically studies the impact and mechanism of environmental regulation on green consumption based on China’s provincial panel data from 2004 to 2020,which has important theoretical and practical significance for promoting China’s green development.The main contents of this paper are as follows.(1)This paper expounds on the environmental regulation practice and green consumption policy in China,and analyzes the challenges of green consumption development in China by reviewing relevant literature and policies.(2)In this paper,environmental and natural resource factors are introduced to expand the Ramsey-Cass-Koopmans model and Copeland-Taylor model from the consumption end and production end,respectively,and externality,Porter hypothesis,consumer preference,and other theories are combined to analyze the impact of environmental regulations on green consumption from the theoretical point of view.(3)According to the connotation of environmental regulation and green consumption,and the principles of index system construction,the evaluation index system of China’s environmental regulation level and green consumption index are constructed.The fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is used to carry out the statistical measurement and analyze their spatio-temporal characteristics.(4)The panel data regression model is constructed to empirically test the impact and mechanism of environmental regulations on green consumption in China.(5)This study summarizes the research conclusions and puts forward specific suggestions.The main conclusions are as follows.(1)China’s green consumption policy system continues to improve.However,China still faces challenges.There is no legislation on green consumption in China,green standards need to be unified,green consumption is not driven internally,and market supervision needs to be improved.(2)The level of environmental regulation in China has periodic fluctuations,and the coordination in the central region needs to be strengthened.Specifically speaking,within the sample period,the level of environmental regulation in China’s three regions showed a trend of synergistic change with the national level,and all experienced three inverted “U” shaped periodic fluctuations.The coordination of environmental regulation levels in the overall level,eastern region,and western region of China showed an increasing trend,while it got deteriorated gradually in the central region.(3)China’s green consumption index showed an overall upward trend,but there were problems of imbalance and inadequacy.During the study period,China’s overall green consumption index showed a fluctuating upward trend,reaching a maximum in 2020.Among the three regions,the green consumption index of the western region was the best.In terms of all dimensions,the eco-environmental protection index,and the conservation,intensive and recycling index of natural resources contributed more to the green consumption index both at the overall level and the regional level.However,the consumption system index at the overall national level and in the eastern region showed a constrained effect on the green consumption index.As far as the coordination of the green consumption index was concerned,it showed a weak upward trend at the national level,while it was gradually enhanced in the eastern region.The coordinated development of green consumption in the central region was unstable and had periodic fluctuations.The variation coefficient of the green consumption index in the western region had been at the highest level for a long time,and the coordination of green consumption development needed to be strengthened.(4)Environmental regulation significantly promoted the development of green consumption,and there was no regional heterogeneity,but there were differences due to the economic development level,economic and social development stage,and regulation type.In regions with a higher level of economic development,environmental regulation played a greater role in promoting green consumption.Compared with the “11th Five-Year Plan” period and the “12th Five-Year Plan” period,the environmental regulation in the “13th Five-Year Plan” period had a greater and more obvious role in promoting green consumption levels.The effect of heterogeneous environmental regulation tools on green consumption showed that the command-andcontrol environmental regulation level had the greatest effect on the improvement of the green consumption index.Among the three regions,command-and-control environmental regulation tools had a more significant role in promoting green consumption in the western region,while market-incentive environmental regulation tools had the best role in promoting green consumption in the central region.Under different economic development levels,market incentive environmental regulation tools had the greatest effect on promoting green consumption in areas with low economic development levels,while public participation environmental regulation tools had a greater effect on promoting green consumption in areas with higher economic development levels.In the “11th Five-Year Plan” period,“12th Five-Year Plan” period,and “13th Five-Year Plan” period,commandand-control type,market incentive type,and public participation type of environmental regulation played a leading role in promoting green consumption,respectively.(5)Environmental regulation promoted green consumption by improving the level of technological innovation and reducing the total amount of energy consumption.However,the industrial structure mechanism needed to be improved.Further study showed that the command-and-control environmental regulation tool promoted the green consumption index by improving technological innovation levels.Market incentive environmental regulation tools may make industrial structures deviate from the rational development track,so we should be vigilant against the phenomenon of distorting the rational development direction of industrial structures and hindering green consumption.Public participatory environmental regulation significantly promoted green consumption by reducing energy consumption.According to the conclusion,this paper proposes five policy implications,which are improving green consumption policies and promoting green development;cooperating with neighboring regions to establish and improve the coordination mechanism of environmental regulation;taking into account the overall situation,drawing on each other’s strengths,and improving the level and coordination of green consumption development;optimizing the combination of environmental regulations and policies to promote the development of green consumption;considering the advantages of environmental regulation tools comprehensively,and planning the development of green consumption scientifically.The main contribution of this paper is as follows.First,this paper introduces environmental and natural resource factors to expand the Ramsey-Cass-Koopmans and Copeland-Taylor models,and builds theoretical models of environmental regulation affecting green consumption from the consumption and production ends based on economic theories;the technological innovation,industrial structure,and energy consumption factors are further included in the theoretical analysis to reveal the impact mechanism of environmental regulation on green consumption,which enriches the relative theoretical analysis framework.Second,this paper improves the connotation of green consumption,and constructs a comprehensive evaluation index system of green consumption with more richness,rationality,and applicability,and collects data for measurement analysis,which provides a reference for the scientific evaluation of green consumption level.Third,the paper empirically tests the relationship between environmental regulation and green consumption in the context of China,and comprehensively examines the effects of environmental regulation from the aspects of direct impact and indirect impact mechanism,which provides theoretical support and new practical ways for improving green consumption policies.