Study On The Impact Of Environmental Regulation On Green Innovation Efficiency In The Yellow River Basin

The Yellow River Basin is an important ecological barrier and Economic Zone in China.Realizing its ecological protection and high-quality development is not only a major national strategy,but also the requirement of the construction of ecological civilization.As China’s energy base,the Yellow River Basin has a large proportion of resource-based industries,which has caused more severe environmental pressure on the already fragile ecological environment.As a policy tool for energy conservation and emission reduction,environmental regulation often has an important impact on green innovation behavior by following the cost or innovation compensation effect,and green innovation is the inevitable choice to achieve high-quality development.The importance of strategic position and the complexity of environmental status require cities in the Yellow River basin to continuously improve the efficiency of green innovation,so as to achieve high-quality development.Based on this,the research on the impact of environmental regulation on green innovation efficiency in the Yellow River Basin is not only typical,but also of great practical significance.This paper firstly summarizes the research progress of environmental regulation and green innovation efficiency,and analyzes the mechanism of environmental regulation on green innovation efficiency.Secondly,the SBM-DEA model is used to calculate the green innovation efficiency of 58 cities in the Yellow River Basin from2008 to 2019.After analyzing the development status of environmental regulation and green innovation efficiency,the spatial Dubin model is established through spatial correlation test and Lagrange test.The spatial adjacency matrix,geographical distance matrix and economic distance matrix are used to analyze the impact of environmental regulation on green innovation efficiency and its spatial spillover effect.Thirdly,the impacts are classified by the upper,middle and lower reaches of the basin and resourcebased cities,and the heterogeneity analysis is carried out.Finally,the robustness of the empirical results is tested by changing the proxy index of the core explanatory variables and changing the spatial weight matrix,and relevant policy implications are proposed based on the research conclusions.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows:（1）From 2008 to 2019,the overall environmental regulation ranking from high to low is downstream city,upstream city and midstream city.Downstream of the urban environment regulation mean higher than average upstream and middle city environmental regulation,and higher than the average level in the Yellow River basin environmental regulation.（2）From 2008 to2019,the green innovation efficiency of the Yellow River Basin showed an upward trend of fluctuation,and the order from high to low was downstream city,middle river city and upstream city.Among them,Xi’an and Jinan have higher efficiency of green innovation.（3）On the whole,the global Moran’s I index of the green innovation efficiency of 58 cities in the Yellow River Basin was positive from 2008 to 2019,and all passed the significance test,which fully shows that the green innovation efficiency of cities in the Yellow River Basin has a significant positive spatial correlation.The local Moran’s I index generally shows the spatial characteristics of "low-low" agglomeration.With the advance of time,it has the trend of changing to "high-high" agglomeration.（4）In the spatial Dubin model,the green innovation efficiency of cities in the Yellow River Basin does have "inertia" in time.The improvement of green innovation efficiency in the early stage will significantly promote the improvement of green innovation efficiency in the current period;Environmental regulation significantly promotes the efficiency of green innovation and verifies the existence of "Porter hypothesis" in the study area;The impact of industrial structure on green innovation efficiency is significantly negative;The degree of opening to the outside world and cultural environment have a significant positive impact on the efficiency of green innovation,which can promote the improvement of the efficiency of green innovation;The promotion effect of economic development level and transportation level on green innovation efficiency is not obvious.（5）In the heterogeneity analysis,from the perspective of upstream,middle and downstream cities,environmental regulation can promote the efficiency of green innovation for upstream cities;The effect on midstream cities is not obvious;For downstream cities,it significantly inhibits the improvement of green innovation efficiency.From the perspective of resource-based cities,environmental regulation plays a more significant role in promoting the efficiency of green innovation than non-resource-based cities.Accordingly,the policy implications of this paper include :（1）adhere to the concept of green innovation and sustainable development.The empirical results show the existence of "Porter hypothesis" in the Yellow River Basin city dimension,so it is necessary to strengthen environmental regulation in the basin to promote the improvement of green innovation efficiency.Cities should actively play the innovation compensation effect of environmental regulation,and constantly improve the specific content and form of environmental regulation.（2）Strengthen exchanges and cooperation between cities in the basin.Xi ’an,Jinan and other provincial capitals should continue to maintain their advantages in green innovation,constantly improve the efficiency of green innovation and play a radiating and leading role.Other cities in the basin should actively learn from the advanced green innovation technologies of neighboring cities and formulate corresponding policies according to their own development realities.（3）Promoting the transformation and upgrading of the industrial structure.Cities in the basin should formulate scientific industrial development strategy,adjust industrial structure reasonably,change development mode,speed up the transformation of old and new driving forces,promote industrial structure transformation and upgrading,and finally realize the improvement of green innovation efficiency.（4）Actively learning advanced experience in green innovation and creating a cultural environment that encourages green development.Cities in the basin should actively learn advanced knowledge,technology and experience of green innovation at home and abroad,enhance their green innovation ability and improve green innovation efficiency in "application learning" and "doing learning".