Research On Environmental Regulation,Internet Penetration And Green Total Factor Productivity

With the rise of people's income level,the public has higher and higher requirements for environmental quality.How to balance the relationship between economic development and ecological environment improvement has become the primary task of the government's work under the Economic New Normal.On the basis of traditional Total Factor Productivity,Green Total Factor Productivity takes into account energy consumption and unexpected output such as environmental pollution.It can better reflect the connotation of the high-quality and sustainable development of the economy and better meet the requirements of green development.Therefore,increasing Green Total Factor Productivity is regarded as an effective way to achieve economic growth and environmental quality improvement.The Internet has facilitated public participation in environmental governance and is playing an increasingly important role in environmental governance.Can environmental regulation and Internet penetration form a joint force to jointly promote Green Total Factor Productivity? There is little discussion in existing literatures,this paper will discuss its mechanism in depth and carry on the empirical analysis.Firstly,this paper analyzes the mechanism of environmental regulation and Internet penetration influencing Green Total Factor Productivity.Then,this paper uses SBM-GML index calculate Green Total Factor Productivity of 30 provinces in China(except Tibet)from 2005 to 2016,and analyzes its development trend.Finally,the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2016 were collected to construct a Two-way Fixed Effect model.The interaction term between environmental regulation and Internet penetration was introduced to empirically test the impact of environmental regulation and Internet penetration on Green Total Factor Productivity,and further in-depth discussions were made.The research results show that:(1)The improvement of environmental regulation is not conducive to Green Total Factor Productivity.(2)Environmental regulation and Internet penetration can form a joint force to jointly enhance Green Total Factor Productivity.The popularity of the Internet makes public demand for environmental protection can be timely and effectively expressed,thus cause the attention of government regulators.It effectively alleviates the information asymmetry between government and the polluting enterprises,makes up for the shortage of government supervision,helps government to improve the level of environmental regulation,and also reduces the cost of government environmental supervision.Government will more actively promote the popularization of the Internet and safeguard the way of public participation in environmental governance.Public will be more enthusiastic to participate in environmental governance through the Internet,which will urge government to take more measures to control environmental pollution.Thus forming a good cycle to achieve the purpose of improving Green Total Factor Productivity.(3)Environmental regulation and Internet penetration can form a synergy to promote energy conservation and emission reduction.Under the influence of Internet penetration,the local government will strengthen environmental regulation and strictly enforce laws in order to satisfy the public demand for environmental protection.Lacking the willingness to speculate,enterprises will actively engaged in technological transformation and innovation activities,increase the intensity of energy conservation and emissions reduction,and strive to meet the environmental standards set by government,so as to achieve the effect of "source control".(4)The influence of environmental regulation and Internet penetration on Green Total Factor Productivity has obvious regional heterogeneity,technological innovation level heterogeneity and urbanization level heterogeneity.The development of the Internet plays an important role in environmental governance.Government should actively promote the development of the Internet,formulate strict and reasonable environmental regulation policies,improve official assessment system,and promote the synergy between environmental regulation and Internet to enhance Green Total Factor Productivity.