Science Research Management

Science Research Management ›› 2021, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (2): 52-63.

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Government environmental protection expenditure, green technology innovation and smog pollution

Li Zihao, Bai Tingting   

  1. School of International Economics and Trade, Henan University of Economics and Law, Zhengzhou 450046, Henan, China
  • Received:2020-06-22 Revised:2020-12-09 Online:2021-02-20 Published:2021-02-23

Abstract:

Since the reform and opening up, China′s economy has achieved rapid growth, and the process of urbanization and industrialization has also brought serious ecological and environmental problems. The smog pollution problem represented by PM2.5 is particularly serious, which not only threatens people′s physical and mental health, but also hinders the sustainable development of the economy and society. As regional compound air pollution, smog pollution has the characteristics of spatial agglomeration, especially in key cities with relatively developed economies such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta. In order to achieve green development, the government has increased environmental protection spending, but the smog pollution situation has not been effectively curbed. Green technology innovation, as an important means to achieve economic growth and environmental protection, also plays an important role in reducing smog pollution. In addition, government environmental protection expenditures can promote the development of green technology innovation from a regulatory and incentive perspective to improve smog pollution. Therefore, smog control is the top priority of the “tough battle of pollution control". By increasing government environmental protection expenditures and improving green technology innovation, the effective management of smog pollution is an important issue of current academic concern.
   Based on the data of 216 or 104 cities in China from 2008 to 2016, this paper uses panel space simultaneous equation estimation, dynamic panel threshold methods to systematically investigate the impact of local government environmental protection expenditure and green technology innovation on smog pollution. The main conclusions are as follows:(1) Increased local government environmental protection expenditures in local and neighboring areas can directly reduce local smog pollution; increased local government environmental protection expenditures can also indirectly reduce local smog pollution by promoting the development of green technology innovation, but the indirect effects through environmental protection expenditures in neighboring governments is not obvious. (2) Local government environmental protection expenditure has a significant green technology innovation threshold effect on smog pollution: when the level of green technology innovation in the region is higher, the government′s environmental protection expenditure has a significant effect on the suppression of smog pollution; vice versa. (3) The extended analysis found that from the perspective of time, after the construction of ecological civilization was incorporated into the performance evaluation system, the local and neighboring governments′ environmental protection expenditures directly reduced the local smog pollution more effectively, and they could also effectively control the local smog pollution through indirect effects of green technology innovation. From a regional perspective, in key regions, the environmental protection expenditures of neighboring governments are more effective in mitigating local smog pollution. The local and neighboring governments′ environmental protection expenditures have a more significant effect on the suppression of smog pollution through indirect channels of green technology innovation. The resulting smog is difficult to control, and the local government′s environmental protection expenditures are not as effective in suppressing smog pollution as in non-key areas.
   According to the research conclusion, the policy implications of this article are as follows: (1) Local governments should consider their own economic and technological development levels, formulate reasonable fiscal environmental protection expenditures, continuously optimize the government′s environmental protection investment structure, actively play the induced effects of fiscal environmental protection funds, promote the flow of social capital to the environmental protection field, support energy-saving environmental protection industry technology research and development, and achieve the transformation of smog end prevention to source prevention. (2) Local governments should gradually increase fiscal environmental protection expenditures, promote the development of green technology innovation, and improve the effectiveness of smog pollution prevention. In addition, a market-oriented green technology innovation system should be built to promote the promotion and application of green technology and green production. The government should focus on promoting traditional traditions through green technology innovation , improve the efficiency of fiscal environmental protection fund use and the marginal rate of return on environmental protection investment, and achieve green and low-carbon development. (3) The central government should remove the "GDP tight mantra", improve the local political performance evaluation system, give play to the guiding role of environmental protection in political performance evaluation, ease local governments′ sacrifice of environmental competition for growth. At the same time, local governments should comprehensively strengthen the inter-regional smog pollution control joint prevention and control mechanism, jointly plan, formulate and implement the smog pollution control plan, and break through the administrative boundary restrictions to form a regional smog prevention joint force. In addition, the governments should continue to deepen the exchange of green technology innovation between regions, build a bridge between regional technology transfer and cooperation, and achieve innovation-driven, win-win cooperation in green development.

Key words: government environmental protection expenditure, green technology innovation, smog pollution