The Relationship between Environmental Regulation, Green-Technology Innovation and Green Total-Factor Productivity—Evidence from 279 Cities in China

This paper employs the SBM-DDF method to measure the index of green total-factor productivity (GTFP), based on the panel data of 279 prefecture-level cities in China from 2007 to 2019, and constructs a spatial Durbin model (SDM) and a threshold effect to empirically test the effects of dual environmental-regulations and green technological innovation on GTFP. The results are as follows: (1) the SDM supports a nonlinear contribution of dual environmental-regulations spillover to GTFP. The relationship between formal environmental-regulation and GTFP is an inverted U-shape, while a U-shaped nonlinear relationship is found between informal environmental regulation and GTFP. (2) Green technology innovation has a significant negative moderating effect on the process of dual environmental-regulations affecting GTFP in local regions, but a positive moderating effect on informal environmental regulation in neighboring regions. (3) There is a significant green technology innovation threshold effect of dual environmental-regulations affecting GTFP. Specifically, the promotion effect of dual environmental-regulations on GFFP gradually increases as the level of green technology innovation increases.