Research On The Influence Of Two Control District Policies On Urban Green Total Factor Productivity

“Two Control Zones” is the abbreviation of Acid Rain Control Zone and Sulfur Dioxide Pollution Control Zone,which is an environmental regulation policy introduced by the State Council in the context of serious environmental pollution in China in 1998 to reduce the emission of sulfur dioxide and the formation of acid rain and realize the development of the economy while achieving environmental protection,the follow-up of this concept has been extended to green development,the essence of green development is actually to promote green total factor productivity(GTFP).At present,developed countries and some emerging countries are implementing green development strategies.The common point is to adopt stricter environmental regulations and more active environmental measures to protect the ecological environment and save resources.Can strict environmental regulation improve GTFP and promote green development? The answer to this question will undoubtedly help to develop and promote systems and policies related to the green development strategy and make decisions for the next green development plan.Based on the non-radial and non-directional SBM directional distance functions,this dissertation calculates green total factor productivity(GTFP)index of cities above the prefecture level in China,and uses propensity score matching approach coupled with difference-in-difference regression analysis to assess the impact of the Two Control Zones policy on the GTFP by considering the Two Control Zones policy proposed in 1998 as a quasi-natural experiment.The results show that the implementation of the Two Control Zones policy significantly inhibits the promotion of GTFP in Chinese cities,which still holds after a series of robustness tests.The reason is that the two-zone policy can not only positively affects GTFP through the spillover effect of technology spending and the reduction of pollution emissions,but also negatively inhibits the rise of GTFP by suppressing the improvement of human capital level high-cost,low-yield green technology innovation and continuous increasing energy input,and the latter influence is greater than the former.In addition,the two-zone policy does not significantly promote GTFP for first-tier cities and new-tier cities,while for second-tier cities and other cities(third-tier cities,fourth-tier cities and fifth-tier cities),the two-zone policy does not Significantly suppress GTFP.