Evaluation of the Policy Effect of China's Environmental Interview System for Effective Air Quality Governance

Quantifying the Effectiveness of Environmental Regulations on Green Total Factor Productivity: Evidence Based on China's Environmental Protection Interview Program

The effectiveness of environmental regulations on green total factor productivity (GTFP) is controversial, and the mechanisms of the relationship between environmental regulation and GTFP are unknown. In this article, we take advantage of the Environmental Protection Interview (EPI) program-the harshest environmental monitoring program in Chinese history-to carry out a natural experiment to estimate the effect of environmental regulation on GTFP. Applying a time-varying difference-in-differences model based on city panel data from 2003 to 2018 in China, we determined that the EPI can lead to an average GTFP promotion of 35.6%, but the effect of the EPI is not consistent in the long term. A heterogeneity analysis documented that the effect of the EPI on GTFP is more significant in cities with low initial GTFP levels and low economic levels. A mechanism analysis showed that the EPI increases GTFP, basically, through technical creativity and industrial structure upgrading.

Research and Optimization of the Coupling and Coordination of Environmental Regulation, Technological Innovation, and Green Development

Environmental regulation and technological innovation play important strategic roles in green growth, and the three systems interact and influence each other. Herein, we used a comprehensive development level evaluation model for calculating the environmental regulation and technological innovation indices for 17 cities in Shandong Province. We used the slack-based measure-data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) model to measure green development efficiency. The coupling coordination degree model was used to determine the coordination of environmental regulation, technological innovation, and green development; we divided the cities into three systems: green economy lagging, environmental regulation lagging, and technological innovation lagging. We used grey correlation analysis to explore the factors affecting system development. Eastern coastal cities were better developed in the three systems and the degree of coupling and coordination, like Qingdao and Weihai, and the observed level of technological innovation development, a critical factor in the coordinated development of cities, was lowest in Shandong Province. The grey correlation analysis illustrated that the level of economic development and the level of foreign economic development impacts cities labeled green economy lagging; the impact of pollutant emissions is greater than pollution control expenditure in environmental regulation lagging cities; and the government’s attention and the cultivation and attraction of talent are foundational for technological innovation in lagging cities. Considering these factors, we make recommendations for the optimal development of cities and coordinated development of regions.