Technological Innovation, Fiscal Decentralization, Green Development Efficiency: Based on Spatial Effect and Moderating Effect

How does technological innovation affect the fiscal decentralization of local governments? Evidence from China

Technological innovation is a pivotal driver of high-quality economic development, and China's distinctive fiscal decentralization model stands out as a crucial institutional factor behind the country's economic growth miracle. Despite its significant academic and practical implications, there is a noticeable scarcity of literature on examining government fiscal decentralization through the lens of technological innovation. This paper addresses fundamental research questions regarding the relationship between technological innovation and fiscal decentralization. Leveraging balanced panel data from 30 provinces in China spanning 2005 to 2020, our findings indicate that technological innovation positively impacts the fiscal decentralization of local governments. Specifically, for each standard deviation increase in technological innovation, there is a corresponding 0.1508 standard deviation in fiscal decentralization. The mechanism driving this relationship lies in technological innovation's ability to enhance enterprise profit levels, increasing tax and non-tax revenues for local governments. Importantly, when non-tax revenue at the central government level surpasses tax revenue, the resulting augmentation in local government revenue contributes to an elevated level of fiscal decentralization. In conclusion, this paper offers valuable insights into the government's endeavors to promote scientific and technological innovation while enhancing local fiscal decentralization. These insights contribute to an improved quality of economic development.

Low-carbon governance, fiscal decentralization, and enterprise green development: Evidence from China

Simultaneously achieving economic development and environmental protection is a shared global challenge. While the positive effect of environmental regulations on protecting the environment has been widely recognized, the attention paid to low-carbon governance and corporate green transformation remains insufficient. Based on the two-stage least square regression model (2SLS) of instrumental variables, this paper utilizes panel data from China to identify the influence mechanism of government low-carbon governance on enterprise green development. It explores the effect of low-carbon governance on enterprise green development from the perspective of fiscal decentralization. The findings show that (1) Low-carbon governance significantly promotes corporate green development, primarily through improving industrial structure and technological innovation; (2) Low-carbon governance notably promotes the green development of private enterprises but has little effect on state-owned enterprises. There are also geographical differences, and the results are better in Eastern China than in the Central and Western parts of China; (3) Fiscal decentralization at both central and local levels inhibits the effect of low-carbon governance on driving corporate green development by causing a mismatch of human resources. Therefore, to promote corporate green development, low-carbon governance must prioritize green development, actively guide industrial structural upgrading and enterprise technological innovation, implement differentiated low-carbon governance measures tailored to different ownership enterprises, and optimize the assessment indicators for fiscal decentralization. This paper helps deepen the understanding of the relationship between government low-carbon governance and enterprise green development in developing countries. It can be used as a reference for government departments to formulate relevant policies.

Does digital finance promote the "quantity" and "quality" of green innovation? A dynamic spatial Durbin econometric analysis

Based on the panel data of 284 prefecture-level cities in China, this paper uses the dynamic spatial Durbin model to explore the impact of digital finance on green innovation from the dimensions of "quantity" and "quality." The results show that digital finance has a positive impact on both the quality and quantity of green innovation in local cities, but the development of digital finance in neighboring cities has a negative impact on the quantity and quality of green innovation in local cities, and the impact on the quality of green innovation is greater than that on the quantity of green innovation. And after a series of robustness tests, it was shown that the above conclusions are robust. In addition, digital finance can have a positive impact on green innovation mainly through industrial structure upgrading and informatization level. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the breadth of coverage and the degree of digitization are significantly related to green innovation, and digital finance has a more significant positive impact in eastern cities than in mid-western cities.

Tourism and Green Development: Analysis of Linear and Non-Linear Effects

Clarifying the relationship between tourism and green development is conducive to promoting the harmonious coexistence of tourism industry benefits and economic and environmental systems. The externalities of tourism on economies and the environment have sparked numerous fascinating academic research debates; however, few studies have considered the impact of tourism on green development that balances economic growth and environmental protection. This study selects the green development efficiency measured by the super-efficient SBM model with undesired output as a proxy indicator of green development and adopts the panel data regression model and dynamic panel threshold regression model to investigate the linear impact and non-linear characteristics of tourism on the green development efficiency for 284 cities in mainland China at the prefecture level and above. The main findings are as follows: (1) Although China's green development efficiency showed an upward trend during the study period, the overall level was not high. (2) Tourism has significantly promoted the improvement of China's green development efficiency, indicating that tourism has become an effective driver of China's economic green transformation. (3) This type of positive promotion of green development by tourism has a non-linear threshold characteristic, which means that, with the continuous improvement of the development level of the tourism industry, after crossing a specific threshold value and entering a higher level of development, the tourism industry will have an increasing marginal impact on the green development efficiency.

Study on the Spatial and Temporal Evolution Patterns of Green Innovation Efficiency and Driving Factors in Three Major Urban Agglomerations in China—Based on the Perspective of Economic Geography

Sustainable development has become a global consensus, and green innovation is the key starting point, and it has become a ballast stone and stabilizer for regional ecological environmental protection and high-quality economic development. Based on GIS tools and multi-method models, this paper studies the spatio-temporal characteristics and influence mechanism of green innovation in three major urban agglomerations in China from 2010 to 2019 from the perspective of economic geography. The study found that: (1) the green innovation efficiency of the three major urban agglomerations in China is in a fluctuating upward trend as a whole, with obvious spatial disequilibrium; (2) from the spatial point of view, the characteristics of global spatial agglomeration distribution have positive spatial correlation, and the law of local spatial autocorrelation is obvious, and the spatio-temporal pattern transitions from “low efficiency, big difference” to “high efficiency, small difference” during the study period; (3) there are obvious spatial spillover and diffusion effects on the green innovation efficiency of the three major urban agglomerations in China as a whole. However, the spatial dependence of green innovation efficiency is inconsistent in China’s three major urban agglomerations; the YRD Urban region and the PRD Urban region show a positive impact, while the JJJ Urban region shows a negative impact; (4) the level of economic development, the operating environment of science and technology, and the guiding factors of government system function with significant differences and regional spatial heterogeneity on the efficiency of green innovation in the three major urban agglomerations in China.

Development of Rural Areas in Ukraine in the Context of Decentralization: An Empirical Study

Decentralization in Ukraine was actualized due to the inability of the local self-government system to satisfy the needs of the rural population in public services for the comprehensive development of a person, their self-realization, and the protection of their constitutional rights. The purpose of this empirical study is to examine development of rural areas in Ukraine in the context of decentralization. The methodology used was exploratory qualitative in nature and used a multiple case study, wherein data analysis were applied. We have found that the first result of decentralization in 2015–2018 is a slowdown in the decline of the proportion of the rural population, in the rate of decline of the available rural population, and the employment rate of the rural population. Our study refutes the hypothesis that the rural development targets, which were defined at the beginning of decentralization and fixed in the current legislation, have been achieved. Rural development targets have not been achieved, and economic modeling shows that there are no prospects for achieving them in the near future. The research results presented in the paper are of considerable importance for developing economic policy and the social development of rural areas, by addressing the needs of these rural areas.