Research On The Coupling And Coordinated Development Of Green Finance And Ecological Efficiency In China

The Chinese-style modernization requires us to adhere to sustainable development,develop a green economy,and protect the ecological environment.Green finance can play a role in allocating financial resources,guiding more funds to the environmental protection industry,and promoting the development of a green economy.On the other hand,China’s current economic development involves a large amount of resource consumption and serious environmental pollution,meaning there is a high cost to the environment and resources in economic development.These problems in turn constrain the sustainable development of the economy,leading to a sustained decline in ecological efficiency.The ultimate goal of developing green finance is to further improve ecological efficiency,but low ecological efficiency may also become a constraint on the development of green finance.Therefore,how to handle the relationship between economic development and ecological efficiency,and the current situation and coordination of green finance and ecological efficiency in China,as well as the driving factors for their coordinated development,are urgent issues facing China’s economic development at this stage.This article is based on the definitions and theoretical basis of green finance and ecological efficiency.Utilizing provincial panel data from 2010 to 2020,the article measures the development levels of green finance and ecological efficiency and empirically analyzes the coordination of their development and the driving factors behind it.First,using the entropy method,the spatial and temporal pattern of green finance in China is calculated and analyzed.Second,using the super-efficiency SBM model,the level and spatial characteristics of ecological efficiency in China are measured and analyzed.Third,using the coupling coordination degree model,the coordinated development level of green finance and ecological efficiency is calculated and analyzed,and the spatial and temporal characteristics and coordination types of their development are analyzed.Fourth,the spatial panel model is chosen to analyze the driving factors and spatial spillover effects of the coordinated development of green finance and ecological efficiency.Finally,the article summarizes the research conclusions and proposes recommendations that are beneficial to the coordinated development of green finance and ecological efficiency in China.The main conclusions are as follows: Firstly,the overall development of green finance in China has shown a slow upward trend,with significant regional differences.The level of green finance in eastern regions has grown rapidly,while some regions in central and western China have experienced a significant decline.Since 2015,a gradient distribution pattern from east to west has gradually emerged.Secondly,the overall ecological efficiency of the country has undergone a fluctuating development stage of "rising-falling-rising",and has always maintained a gradient distribution pattern from east to west in terms of geographical distribution.Ecological efficiency in eastern regions is significantly higher than the national average,while the gap in central and western regions is not large but far behind the east.Thirdly,the coordinated development level of green finance and ecological efficiency in the country has gradually improved during the sample period,and the gradient trend from east to west is still maintained in terms of spatial distribution.The level of coordinated development in eastern regions has entered the moderately coordinated stage from the basic coordinated stage,while the level of coordinated development in central regions has always been in the basic coordinated stage,and the level of coordinated development in western regions has even decreased to the moderately uncoordinated stage.Beijing and Shanghai have entered the highly coordinated stage of development,achieving the mutual promotion and orderly development of green finance and ecological efficiency.The main constraints on the coordinated development of green finance and ecological efficiency in most regions of the country are the backward comprehensive development level and the lagging development of green finance.Regions with lagging ecological efficiency are relatively few.Fourthly,there is spatial correlation in the coordinated development of green finance and ecological efficiency in the country,and the driving factors have significant effects and spatial spillover effects.The spatial correlation of the coordinated development level is constantly increasing,showing a spatial distribution feature of high-high agglomeration and low-low agglomeration.The driving factors all have a promoting effect on the coordinated development of the local region,and economic foundation,human capital,and industrial policy factors have significant spatial spillover effects.