The impact of local government competition and green technology innovation on economic low-carbon transition: new insights from China

The government-led Chinese economic development system determines that local government competition is a significant factor affecting the economic low-carbon transition. Driving an economic development mode with green technology innovation as the core is the critical path to realizing an economic low-carbon transition. Consequently, it is of significant practical relevance to investigate the impact of local government competition and green technology innovation on the economic low-carbon transition under the government-led Chinese economic development system. This paper systematically explores the nexus between green technology innovation and economic low-carbon transition in terms of local government competition perspective using the system generalized method of moments, panel threshold model, and geographically weighted regression on the basis of a dataset of 30 provincial administrative areas in China from a period of 2006–2019. The results indicate that green technology innovation significantly promotes the economic low-carbon transition. Local government competition not only significantly dampens the economic low-carbon transition but also considerably inhibits the positive effect of green technology innovation on the economic low-carbon transition. A significant N-shaped association is evident between green technology innovation and the economic low-carbon transition when green technology innovation is applied as a threshold, while such association is insignificant when local government competition is used as a threshold. Compared with high-competition intensity areas, green technology innovation promotes economic low-carbon transition weaker in low- competition intensity areas, while local government competition inhibits economic low-carbon transition stronger. However, local government competition significantly inhibits the positive effect of green technology innovation on the economic low-carbon transition in low-competition intensity areas, while insignificant in high-competition intensity areas. The geographically weighted regression technique as a whole also verified the above results. Therefore, policymakers should not only increase research and development investment in green technologies, but also develop a regionally linked low-carbon emission reduction system to avoid ineffective competition among governments to facilitate the earlier fulfillment of the “dual carbon” goal.