Can Eco-Compensation Promote Green Economic Development?Evidence from Xin'an River Basin Horizontal Eco-Compensation Pilot
Xin'an River Basin is an important ecological barrier in the Yangtze River Delta and has an essential ecologi-cal strategic position.It is one of the rare and urgently needed water ecological regions in China at present.However,there are problems in the Xin'an River Basin,such as intensified water pollution,prominent agricultural non-point source pollu-tion,and imbalanced economic development.The contradiction between economic development and environmental protec-tion seriously restricts the sustainable economic development of the Xin'an River Basin.Against this background,since 2011,Anhui and Zhejiang provinces have explored and carried out the first pilot work of trans-provincial watershed horizon-tal eco-compensation in the Xin'an River Basin.From a practical perspective,Xin'an River Basin horizontal eco-compensa-tion(XRBHE)policy has improved watershed comprehensive management level,improved watershed eco-environment quality,and promoted watershed green economic development.From a theoretical perspective,existing studies mainly evalu-ate the policy effects from a single aspect of economic or environmental benefits,neglecting the effects and mechanisms of the XRBHE policy on green economic development.Therefore,exploring the impact of the XRBHE policy on green eco-nomic development in China has important practical and theoretical significance.Given this,this study treats the XRBHE policy as a quasi-natural experiment,and adopts the county-level economic and environmental data of Anhui and Zhejiang provinces from 2003 to 2020 to examine the impact of the XRBHE policy on green economic growth by utilising the difference-in-differences(DID)model and a series of robustness tests.The results show that:First,the XRBHE policy significantly improves green total factor productivity in compensated areas,which is conducive to promoting regional green economic development.Second,from the perspectives of dual goals of"pollution re-duction"and"growth",the policy helps to reduce water pollution,while it has a weak impact on regional economic growth.Third,the XRBHE policy can drive green economic development by weakening polluting industrial development and im-proving labor productivity,but cannot promote green economic development by affecting technological progress.Fourth,the heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the green economic development effect of XRBHE policy in the upper reaches of the Xin'an River Basin is significantly stronger than that in the lower reaches,while there is an insignificant difference re-garding the XRBHE's pollution reduction effect and economic growth effect between the upper and lower reaches.Based on the above conclusions,two policy implications are obtained.First,the central government should continue to promote the pilot construction of watershed horizontal eco-compensation,and comprehensively improve the quality of the eco-environment.Under the strong supervision of the central government,local governments should establish a trans-provin-cial horizontal eco-compensation mechanism based on regional resource endowment conditions and ecosystem characteris-tics,using a market-oriented approach of"gambling mechanism+two-way compensation".Through multiple rounds of pi-lot work,they should continuously optimize watershed eco-compensation standards and improve policy effectiveness.Sec-ondly,the central government and local government should establish a long-term mechanism for watershed horizontal eco-compensation to achieve regional green economic development.When designing watershed horizontal eco-compensa-tion mechanisms,central and local governments should link the allocation of eco-compensation funds with the effectiveness of green economic development,and maximize policy effectiveness by establishing corresponding incentive and constraint mechanisms.Local governments should innovate and practice the"hematopoietic compensation"mode,guide compensation funds to be used for eco-industrial development,human capital enhancement,and other aspects,to effectively promote wa-tershed green economic development.
green economic developmentwatershed horizontal eco-compensationgreen total factor productivitypol-lution reductiongreen technological innovation
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