Research On The Spatiotemporal Impact Of Environmental Regulation On Ecological Welfare Performance

To fully utilize the institutional dividends of environmental regulation,it is crucial to respect,conform to and protect nature while balancing economic development,social life and ecological environment.This promotes the improvement of ecological welfare performance characterized by stable growth,environmental protection and increased well-being,contributing to the new pattern of modernization and harmonious development of man and nature.In this paper,we analyze the influence of environmental regulation on ecological welfare performance and provide suggestions for constructing an ecological welfare performance-oriented environmental regulation policy,exploring the synergistic development mechanism of economic,environmental and social welfare.This paper constructs a regional ecological welfare performance evaluation index system in China based on a systematic review of relevant literature and mechanisms of action.Using the super-efficiency SBM model,the ecological welfare performance of 30 Chinese provincial regions from 2004 to 2020 is measured across three dimensions: resource consumption,environmental pollution,and social welfare.Results indicate that while China’s ecological welfare performance has gradually improved,it remains at an overall low level with strong regional differences,particularly showing an east-middle-west decreasing trend.The Dagum Gini coefficient is used to analyze the sources of spatial differences,revealing interregional disparity as the primary source of overall regional disparity.Additionally,Kernel kernel density estimation is employed to investigate the dynamic evolution of ecological welfare performance distribution,showing polarization decrease in the eastern region,increase in the central region,and a cyclical "polarization →convergence" feature in the western region.Markov chains are used to analyze state shift trends,revealing a club convergence phenomenon that makes it difficult for provinces with low ecological welfare performance to achieve rapid development.Empirical studies using Tobit and threshold panel models demonstrate that environmental regulations have a nonlinear impact on ecological welfare performance,with greater impacts in the central and western regions compared to the eastern region.Finally,a spatial Durbin model indicates that ecological welfare performance in China exhibits significant spatial correlation and that environmental regulations have a negative spillover effect on neighboring regions,displaying beggar-thy-neighbor characteristics.