A Study On The Impact Of Environmental Decentralization On Regional Eco-efficiency

Sustainable development is a fundamental way of economic transformation.The degree of environmental management rights and responsibilities assigned between the central and local governments are related to country’s sustainable development process.Hence,as a form of weak sustainable development,eco-efficiency is also affected by country’s environmental management institution.At present,China mainly implements a jurisdictional environmental management institution that local environmental affairs are mainly responsible for local environmental protection departments.Moreover,environmental manageme nt systems are different between different countries,thus its impact on economy and environment cannot be generalized.Therefore,exploring the impact of China’s environmental management system on eco-efficiency is of great practical significance to impro ve the environmental management system and promote China’s sustainable development.Based on previous studies,this article measures the environmental decentralization and classifies them according to local environmental protection functions.The results show a centralized trend of environmental management power at the national level.While the environmental decentralization in eastern and central regions shows a downward trend,it increases in western regions.At the same time,this paper calculates the provincial eco-efficiency by using super-efficiency model with undesired output.The results show that eco-efficiency in eastern regions is higher than central and western regions,and it shows a downward trend with time.On this basis,referring to the existing literature,this article explores the mechanism of environmental decentralization and regional eco-efficiency and the situation when the fiscal federalism exists.As shown by the results,firstly,the spillover effect of regional eco-efficiency is significant.Secondly,at the national level,environmental,environmental administrative,and environmental monitoring decentralization have positive impacts on regional eco-efficiency,while environmental inspection decentralization may aggravate the situation.Thirdly,the interaction between environmental and fiscal decentralization has a negative effect on regional eco-efficiency.Fourthly,the effects of environmental decentralization vary among regions.With the increase in attention on the environment,the improvement of regional eco-efficiency caused by environmental decentralization is more significant in central and western regions.Finally,this article puts forward corresponding policy recommendations on how to improve regional eco-efficiency from the perspective of the allocation of environmental rights and responsibilities.