Interjurisdiction political competition and green total factor productivity in China: An inverted-U relationship

Considering environmental pollution, excessive interjurisdictional competition has an adverse effect on green total factor productivity (GTFP), whereas moderate competition does not. Using a panel dataset of 278 prefectures during the 2004-2013 period, we calculate GTFP via a stochastic frontier model and find an inverse U-shaped relationship between county-level government competition and prefectural GTFP. The relationship is robust to endogeneity and alternative specifications. Mechanisms of the relationship consist of traditional input-output ratio, pollution emissions, and environmental technical progress. The spatial spillover effect of political competition is insignificant, indicating that a political promotion tournament in a prefecture is characterized by internal competition within the prefecture.