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

Green development efficiency is an essential measure of China's economy turning into a stage of high-quality development in the new era. This paper establishes a spatial Durbin model based on the new geography economics. It empirically investigates the spatial effect of technological innovation on regional green development efficiency and the moderating effect of fiscal decentralization on the above mechanism using panel data of 29 provinces in China from 2010 to 2018. The results show that: from 2010 to 2018, both technological innovation and green development efficiency in Chinese provinces show significant spatial clustering effects; technological innovation not only has a significant role in promoting green development efficiency in the region but also leads to the improvement of green development efficiency in neighboring regions; and fiscal decentralization positively regulates the direct effect of technological innovation on green development efficiency in the region, and negatively regulates the spatial spillover effect of technological innovation on green development efficiency in neighboring regions.

Automated summary

This study uses panel data from 29 provinces in China and establishes a spatial Durbin model to investigate the spatial effect of technological innovation on regional green development efficiency and the moderating effect of fiscal decentralization. The results show that technological innovation not only promotes green development efficiency in the region but also has positive effects on neighboring regions. Additionally, fiscal decentralization positively regulates the direct effect of technological innovation on green development efficiency, but negatively regulates the spatial spillover effect.