Study On The Impact Of Local Government Tax Competition On Regional Ecological Efficiency

In the decades of reform and opening up,especially since the tax-sharing fiscal system,local governments,under the dual incentives of "area welfare" and "political promotion",have continuously sought more resource elements to promote the rapid development of local economies.Tax competition,as an important means of local government competition,not only actively guides the rational deployment of industries,science and technology,etc.in various regions,but also brings certain pressure to the local environmental pollution control.The tax competition policy affects the whole body,affecting the level of regional economic growth,the level of industrial structure,the ability to drive innovation,and the level of environmental pollution.Based on the realistic background of rapid economic development and environmental pollution in China,this article comprehensively considers the impact of tax competition on high-quality economic development and environmental quality,that is,the impact of tax competition on regional ecological efficiency.In theory,first define the basic concept of ecological efficiency,and propose that ecological efficiency is the corresponding relationship between the level of high-quality economic development and the ecological environmental load within a certain area.Based on the fiscal decentralization theory,the "central-peripheral" structure theory,the theory of government regulation,and the theory of externalities,the internal mechanism of local government tax competition affecting regional ecological efficiency is explored.Specifically: local government tax competition affects regional ecological efficiency by affecting high-quality economic development and ecological environmental load.In terms of high-quality economic development,tax competition affects the level of high-quality economic development through three levels of economic development level,industrial structure,and innovation drive,resulting in economic development effects,industrial structure effects,and innovation-driven effects,which in turn affect regional ecological efficiency.In terms of ecological and environmental load,tax competition affects the level ofenvironmental regulations and environmental quality by adjusting the status of regional capital revenues and expenditures,produces environmental pollution effects,and then affects regional ecological efficiency.In practice,combined with statistical data,the tax competition and ecological efficiency measurement indicators are selected to complete the provincial tax competition and regional ecological efficiency calculations at the provincial level.According to the calculation results,China’s tax competition as a whole is increasing,but there is a slight fluctuation in the middle.In terms of different regions,Beijing,Shanghai and other regions have obvious geographical advantages and low levels of tax competition,while Henan,Hunan,and Hebei have relatively high levels of tax competition.The comprehensive technical efficiency value of China’s regional ecological efficiency takes 2012 as the inflection point.The overall V-shaped evolution pattern of first decline and then increase,with certain regional differences.The eastern and northeastern regions have relatively high ecological efficiency,while the central region’s average ecological efficiency is much lower than the national average.According to the decomposition of ecological efficiency at the provincial level,there is still a certain gap between the current production scale of the four major regions of the country and the optimal production scale.The test using Moran ’s I index found that the ecological efficiency of Chinese provinces is not completely independent in spatial distribution,and there is a global spatial autocorrelation effect.With the help of the spatial lag model,based on the spatial panel data of 30province-level regions in China from 2001 to 2016,an empirical test of the impact of tax competition on regional ecological efficiency was completed.The main conclusions are twofold: first,the core explanatory variable tax competition shows a negative correlation with the level of regional ecological efficiency,which indicates that tax competition tends to evolve into "bottom-to-bottom competition",which is not conducive to the improvement of the level of ecological efficiency;the second is through the intermediary effect Model tests.The level of economic growth,industrial structure,innovation-driven capacity,and environmental pollution have all significantly passed the mediation effect model test,indicating that tax competitionwill affect regional ecology through economic growth effects,industrial structure effects,innovation-driven effects,and environmental pollution effects.The level of efficiency,thus validating the relevant reasoning in 2.3.To this end,it is necessary to further standardize preferential tax policies,improve the environmental protection tax system,improve the regional investment environment,reduce dependence on tax competition strategies,and strengthen cooperation between regional environmental protection departments.