Effects Of Environmental Regulation On Upgrading Of The Regional Industrial Structure

While maintaining rapid economic growth from the reform and opening up in China,serious environmental pollution and ecological damage have been caused by the irrational industrial structure.Some contamination accidents have erupted in succession.Environmental pollution has become an important threat to residents health and social stability.As the negative externalities of environmental pollution are increasingly destructive to production and life,and as the government and the public are increasingly aware of the environment,strengthening environmental regulations has become a common choice for China to develop its economy and improve its living environment.Based on this context,it is of great significance to explore the effect of environmental regulation on the upgrading of industrial structure.The study is based on theories of environmental regulation,industrial structure,and regional sustainable development.It takes 283 prefecture-level cities in China as research objects to construct an evaluation index system for the intensity of environmental regulation and the upgrading of the industrial structure.The paper uses mathematical methods such as regression model,as well as spatial statistics and spatial analysis methods such as trend surface and autocorrelation to deeply explore the environmental regulation intensity and the characteristics of the spatiotemporal evolution of industrial structure upgrade.By constructing a panel measurement model and a spatial measurement model,empirical analysis of the direct impact of environmental regulation on the industrial structure upgrade impact,indirect impact,and space spillover effect.Concluded as follow:(1)From 2003 to 2015,the total amount of investment in various types of pollution control such as total investment in environmental pollution control,industrial pollution control investment,environmental protection investment in construction projects,three simultaneous,and investment in urban environmental infrastructure construction continued to increase.The effect is obvious.The construction of environmental protection institutions is gradually institutionalized and standardized,and environmental protection professionals are playing an increasingly important role in environmental protection.The environmental protection legal system is becoming more and more perfect,and the channels for the public to express environmental protection demands and environmental protection concepts are increasingly diversified.The intensity of environmental regulation is spatially diminishing in the order of east,west,and west,and there is an obvious club effect.The Moran’s I index decreased from 0.0981 to 0.0916,indicating that there is a spatial correlation effect between cities,but the spatial dependence has weakened.The number of cold spots decreased from 148 to 68,and the number of hot spots increased from 17 to 64,indicating that the intensity of environmental regulations has increased the positive spillover effect of surrounding areas.(2)The proportion of the output value of the three industries in the gross national product shows different trends.The proportion of the output value of the primary industry continues to decline,the proportion of the output value of the secondary industry increases first and then decreases,and the proportion of the output value of the tertiary industry continues to increase,In 2012,the transition from the "two three one" to the "three two one" industrial structure model was completed(the proportions of the three industries were 9.42%,45.27%,and 45.31%,respectively).The employment of the three industries shows a trend of shifting from the primary industry to the secondary and tertiary industries,which is in line with the evolution of industrial structure.The rationalization of the industrial structure is significantly affected by regional heterogeneity,showing uneven and uneven distribution characteristics in space;the advanced structure of the industry shows a dynamic distribution trend of the three steps of east,middle,and west,and the trend of advanced industrial structure in the eastern and central regions is obvious.There is a downward trend in the advanced structure of the industrial structure in the western region.(3)An empirical analysis of the impact of environmental regulation on the upgrading of industrial structure by constructing a panel metering model,the study found that the interaction between the intensity of environmental regulation and the rationalization of industrial structure and the advanced structure of the industry showed a "U" curve relationship.When the intensity of environmental regulation is located on the left half of the “U”shaped curve,the intensity of regulation is weak at this time,which has a negative inhibitory effect on the rationalization of industrial structure and advanced industrial structure.When the intensity of environmental regulation is located on the right half of the U-shaped curve,that is,when the intensity of regulation crosses a certain threshold value,it will have a positive promotion effect on the rationalization of industrial structure and the advancement of industrial structure.(4)Taking spatial correlation factors into consideration,it is analyzed the spatial effects of environmental regulation on the upgrading of industrial structure by using the spatial dubin model.Studies show that the intensity of environmental regulation has a significant role in promoting the upgrading of industrial structures in neighboring regions,and the rationalization of industrial structure is reflected in statistics.The spatial decomposition effect shows that the direct,indirect and total effects of environmental regulation intensity on the advancement of the industrial structure are positive,and the direct effects on the rationalization of the industrial structure are positive,and the indirect and total effects are not significant.(5)Based on the effect of environmental regulations on the upgrading of industrial structure,an econometric model is used to analyze the impact of environmental regulations in prefecture-level cities on environmental regulations,based on intermediate variables such as social needs,technological innovation,and foreign direct investment.From the perspective of rationalization of industrial structure and advanced industrial structure,the implementation of environmental regulations in Chinese prefecture-level cities failed to effectively promote the upgrading of the industrial structure based on the intermediate variables of social demand;while the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure was promoted based on technological innovation and foreign direct investment.(6)Environmental regulation is one of the effective means to promote the upgrading of industrial structure,and it is of great significance to coordinate the contradiction between economic development and environmental protection.At present,there are problems such as a small proportion of environmental protection investment,weak environmental protection legislation,lack of public participation in environmental protection behaviors,and obvious gaps between regions.Therefore,it is necessary to increase the intensity of environmental regulations,improve the environmental regulatory system,and implement joint prevention and control mechanisms.To promote the optimization and upgrading of industrial structures,we should promote regional coordination and cooperation,transform industrial structure policies,improve the efficiency of factor allocation,improve scientific and technological innovation capabilities,and promote the transformation of industrial structure and so on.The following innovations exist: on the one hand,taking prefecture-level cities as research objects,the study explores the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics of city-level environmental regulation intensity and industrial structure upgrade from the perspective of economic geography "process and pattern".On the other hand,using panel measurement model,spatial dubin model empirically analyzes regional differences and spatial spillover effects of environmental regulation on industrial structure upgrade.The research has important theoretical and practical significance for promoting the upgrading of regional industrial structure and optimizing the spatial layout of regional industries.