A Study On The Impact Of Environmental Regulations On The Upgrade Of Regional Industrial Structure

Under the background of China’s economic transformation and upgrading,the traditional extensive economic growth mode with high pollution and high emissions has been unsustainable.To realize the green and sustainable development of regional economy has become the development goal of local governments.In order to reduce the negative impact of economic development on the regional ecological environment,many regions have formulated a wide range of environmental regulation policies to restrict polluting enterprises to improve the level of regional industrial green development.So is environmental regulation a favorable tool for achieving a win-win development of ecological protection and economic development? Can environmental regulation promote the development of regional industrial structure? Is there spatial heterogeneity in the impact of environmental regulation on industrial structure upgrading? Will spatial relevance affect the relationship between environmental regulation and regional industrial structure upgrading? Therefore,this paper studies the above issues with the topic of the impact of environmental regulation on the upgrading of regional industrial structure,providing theoretical basis and decision-making reference for the coordinated development of regional economy and ecological environment.On the basis of literature review and relevant theoretical analysis,this paper analyzes the impact mechanism of environmental regulation on industrial structure upgrading,and deduces the mathematical model,so as to put forward the research hypothesis;Then,using the data of 108 municipalities directly under the central government or prefecture level cities in the Yangtze River economic belt,this paper constructs regional environmental regulation and regional industrial structure indicators,measures the intensity of environmental regulation and the development of regional industrial structure of each city in the Yangtze River economic belt,and analyzes the development of environmental regulation and regional industrial structure of the Yangtze River economic belt from the perspective of time-space differentiation;Then,the fixed effect model and spatial econometric model areintroduced to further analyze the relationship between environmental regulation and regional industrial structure in the Yangtze River economic belt from an empirical perspective to verify the hypothesis.The empirical results in this article validate the hypotheses proposed in this article.The research results show that:(1)The environmental regulation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt has a significant role in promoting the upgrading of the regional industrial structure.Each 1% increase in the intensity of environmental regulation will bring a 0.02% improvement in the industrial structure.(2)There is spatial heterogeneity in the impact of environmental regulation on the upgrading of regional industrial structure in the Yangtze River economic belt.Environmental regulation in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River economic belt plays the most significant role in promoting the upgrading of industrial structure,followed by the middle reaches,while environmental regulation in the upper reaches does not play a significant role in promoting the upgrading of regional industrial structure.(3)Environmental regulation has an intermediary effect on the industrial structure in the Yangtze River economic belt.Environmental regulation can affect the development of industrial structure by affecting regional fixed asset investment.(4)The average values of the spatial Moran index of the environmental regulation and industrial structure upgrading indicators of the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2007 to 2016 were 0.15 and 0.33,respectively.There is a significant spatial positive correlation between environmental regulation and industrial structure development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.(5)Every 1%increase in the efficiency index of resource allocation can promote the regional industrial structure index by 0.56%.Every 1% increase in the opening-up index will lead to a 0.16% decrease in the regional industrial structure index,and the opening-up will inhibit the upgrading of regional industrial structure.Finally,based on the research conclusions,this article puts forward the following suggestions for upgrading the industrial structure of the Yangtze River Economic Belt:Improve the environmental regulatory system and scientifically formulate the regulatory intensity;Improve the level of regional coordination and reduce the gap in industrial development;improve the construction of supporting measures and improvethe support of the basic environment;Strengthen central city leadership,promote industrial transformation and upgrading;optimize resource allocation efficiency,and improve foreign investment structure.