Study On The Social Welfare Effects Of Inclusive Green Development In The Yangtze River Economic Belt

Improving people’s well-being and promoting common prosperity for all are the starting point and foothold of modernization,and is also the essential requirement for realizing Chinese-style modernization.Inclusive green development aims to achieve coordinated development of the economy,society and natural system.It perfectly embodies the strategy of coordinated regional development and the concept of green development.It is the only way to achieve common prosperity and realize China’s modernization.The report of the CPC 20 th National Congress pointed out that we should thoroughly implement the strategy of coordinated regional development and practice the concept of green development.It will improve people’s well-being and realize Chinese-style modernization.The Yangtze River Economic Belt is the economic and industrial belt with the most abundant resources and the most concentrated economy in China.It is an important front to promote green development and regional coordinated development.At three symposia on comprehensively promoting the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt,Xi Jinping stressed that the Yangtze River Economic Belt should write a new chapter of ecological priority and green development,and create a new model of coordinated regional development.This is the practical need to solve the unbalanced and inadequate development of the basin,and also the internal requirement to improve people’s livelihood and achieve common prosperity.Therefore,the study of the social welfare effects of inclusive green development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt is of great significance for its highquality development.It also provides an important demonstration role for China to achieve common prosperity and Chinese-style modernization.This paper reviews the relevant theories of inclusive green development,sorts out the research progress of the social welfare effect of inclusive green development,and puts forward the concept connotation of inclusive green development and social welfare effect.Further,we construct the analysis framework of the social welfare effect of inclusive green development,and the mathematical model to analyze the impact of inclusive green development on social welfare.Then,we explain the formation mechanism of the income growth effect,social equity effect and environmental improvement effect of inclusive green development,and put forward corresponding hypotheses.Thereafter,this paper constructs the inclusive green development evaluation index system to measure the inclusive green development level of 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2003 to 2019,and analyzes its characteristics.Finally,based on the urban panel data and China General Social Survey data,this paper empirically tests the income growth effect,social equity effect and environmental improvement effect of inclusive green development from the macro and micro levels,and analyzes its influencing mechanism.Combining theoretical analysis and empirical test,this paper draws the following conclusions.(1)According to the measurement and characteristic analysis results of inclusive green development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt,the level of inclusive green development in the whole and the upper,middle and lower regions of the Yangtze River Economic Belt shows an upward trend and its spatial distribution shows a ladder pattern of downstream>midstream>upstream.The absolute difference of inclusive green development in each region shows an expanding trend.The polarization phenomenon in the downstream region is gradually obvious,while the polarization phenomenon in the middle and upstream region is weakening.The differences in inclusive green development within and between regions tend to expand first and then shrink,among which the intra-regional differences are the main source.Therefore,the Yangtze River Economic Belt should continue to play the leading role of central cities,urban agglomerations and city circles.This will narrow the development gap within and between regions,and create a new model of regional coordinated development.(2)The test results of the income growth effect of inclusive green development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt show that,inclusive green development can significantly increase the income level of residents and narrow the income gap between urban and rural residents in both macro and micro level analyses.There is significant heterogeneity in the income growth effect of inclusive green development.The income growth effect is more obvious in regions with lower levels of inclusive green development and economic development.Inclusive green development can improve incomes through education and healthy human capital accumulation.Therefore,the Yangtze River Economic Belt should promote the inclusive green development in cities,while increasing investment in public education and improving the social security system to improve people’s well-being.(3)According to the test results of the social equity effect of inclusive green development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt,the macro and micro analyses show that inclusive green development can significantly improve social equity,and the optimization of industrial structure can strengthen the improvement effect.Inclusive green development weakens its role in improving social equity by improving green total factor productivity.It is necessary to strengthen the ability of groups with low social equity to benefit from the improvement of green total factor productivity.There is significant heterogeneity in the social equity effect of inclusive green development,the mediating effect of green total factor productivity and the regulating effect of industrial structure.So differentiated policies should be formulated to promote common prosperity.(4)According to the test results of the environmental improvement effect of inclusive green development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt,inclusive green development can significantly reduce pollutant emissions,but it will worsen residents’ environmental pollution perception.Therefore,it is necessary to further strengthen the concept of green development to strengthen its environmental improvement effect.The environmental improvement effect of inclusive green development has obvious heterogeneity.Inclusive green development can reduce pollutant emission and improve residents’ environmental pollution perception by improving environmental regulation and promoting green technology innovation,so as to achieve environmental pollution improvement.Therefore,while improving the level of inclusive green development,it is necessary to improve the intensity of environmental regulation and encourage enterprises to make green technology innovation,so as to achieve high-quality regional development.