Chinese Provincial Ecological Welfare Performance Evaluation And Its Influencing Factors Research

Ecological welfare performance is a metric used to evaluate the effectiveness of converting ecological consumption into welfare output,and it can provide insights into the degree of sustainable development achieved in a given region.Since the start of the reform and opening up,China has prioritized the development of its secondary industry as a means of achieving rapid economic growth.However,this focus on industry has often resulted in negative impacts on the ecological environment.The context of fast-paced economic growth has led to severe pollution of the ecological environment,depletion of ecological resources,and other social issues.This goes against the national initiative to promote the construction of an ecological civilization and ultimately undermines the well-being of the population.Achieving sustainable development and promoting harmonious development across economic,social,and environmental domains has become a pressing need in China.To this end,it is crucial to enhance the regional ecological welfare performance,which involves maximizing welfare output while minimizing harm to the ecological environment.This thesis has two main objectives.Firstly,it aims to measure China’s current level of ecological welfare performance and identify the reasons for the differences in performance between regions.Secondly,it seeks to analyze the factors that impact ecological welfare performance and provide relevant policy recommendations to promote sustainable development in China.This thesis conducts a comprehensive analysis of ecological welfare performance by selecting 30 provinces and cities in China and examining their performance from 2011 to 2019.The research is based on both domestic and international studies of ecological welfare performance.This thesis covers four main areas of research.Firstly,it analyzes China’s eco-welfare performance using factor analysis,based on the definition of eco-welfare performance.Secondly,it measures the level of eco-welfare performance of 30 provinces in China.Secondly,the thesis employs the Gini coefficient to calculate the disparities in ecological welfare performance across each province in China.The study then utilizes σ convergence and β convergence to forecast the potential future trends of these disparities.Thirdly,in terms of measuring the impact of ecological welfare performance,the spatial correlation between ecological welfare performance in China is determined,and then a spatial econometric model is applied to investigate the factors which affect ecological welfare performance.Finally,based on the analysis results,countermeasures and suggestions are proposed to improve the level of ecological welfare performance.The research findings indicate that:(1)China’s ecological welfare performance demonstrated an overall upward trend between 2011 and 2019.Moreover,there were significant variations in the efficiency values among different provinces.The ecological welfare performance values of Beijing,Chongqing,and Guangdong Province rank among the top three provinces in China,indicating a relatively high level of ecological welfare in these regions.On the other hand,Qinghai,Xinjiang,and Ningxia have lower ecological welfare performance values,suggesting that these regions may face challenges in promoting sustainable development.Moreover,the study suggests that there is a certain degree of spatial aggregation of ecological welfare performance in China,with some regions showing higher performance than others.Specifically,Central,East,and South China,as well as parts of Southwest China,demonstrate relatively high levels of ecological welfare performance,while Northwest and Northeast China show a lower trend.In terms of welfare output and ecological consumption,most provinces in China are at the stage of high welfare output-low ecological consumption,and low welfare output-low ecological consumption.(2)With regard to variation,there are some differences in ecological welfare performance among provinces in China,but the degree of variation has decreased over time.Specifically,the study found that there is σ convergence and βconvergence in ecological welfare performance in China,suggesting that the level of ecological welfare performance among provinces will gradually converge in the future.(3)Analysis of the influencing factors reveals that the ecological welfare performance is affected to varying degrees by industrial structure,intensity of technological investment,level of urbanization,energy intensity,and environmental regulations.The proportion of secondary industry and energy intensity have a significant adverse effect on the ecological welfare performance at the local level.Nevertheless,their spatial spillover effects are insignificant,indicating that alterations in the share of secondary industry and energy intensity in the surrounding regions do not considerably influence the local ecological welfare performance.The improvement of urbanisation level in the surrounding areas can effectively contribute to the improvement of ecological welfare performance in the region,but the impact of urbanisation level within the region on ecological welfare performance is not significant.The coefficients of the intensity of technological investment and environmental regulation on ecological welfare performance are both positive,and their indirect effects are also significantly positive.This implies that increasing the intensity of investment in science and technology,as well as strengthening environmental regulations,can effectively enhance the ecological welfare performance in China.To enhance the ecological welfare performance in China,promote sustainable development,and improve the well-being of its residents,this study proposes the following recommendations based on its findings:(1)Increase the intensity of investment in scientific research and promote the adoption of green technologies.The level of ecological welfare performance is most significantly impacted by the intensity of investment in science and technology.Therefore,it is crucial to prioritize and promote green technological innovation.(2)To reduce the impact on the environment,it is important to improve energy use efficiency and decrease energy intensity.This can be achieved by accelerating enterprises with outdated production capacity and promoting energy conservation and emission reduction.(3)Sustainable development can be achieved through increased environmental regulation.It is essential to improve corresponding laws and regulations to ensure long-term sustainability.