环保财政支出竞争对环境污染的空间效应——基于支出规模的视角

Spatial Effects of Environmental Fiscal Expenditure Competition on Environmental Pollution—— The Perspective of Expenditure Scale

采用莫兰指数、局部莫兰指数和空间杜宾模型三种方法,实证检验中国大陆31个省市区政府间环保财政支出竞争对环境污染的空间效应。研究结果表明,地理相邻的地方政府在环境保护支出规模方面存在竞争,且大多数省份属于竞相向下的策略模仿行为;东中西部的环保财政支出规模呈趋同性走向,本地区的环保财政支出对本地区环境质量影响不显著,但加剧了相邻地区的环境污染程度;目前的环保财政支出没有起到应有的作用,环境治理在地区间存在"搭便车"现象。研究还发现,贸易开放度能够降低本地区环境污染水平。提出建立环保考核长效问责机制,加快地区产业结构升级,鼓励企业技术创新,探索地方政府环境污染区域协调治理机制等建议。

Based on the perspective of strategic interaction, this paper empirically examines the spatial effects of fiscal expenditure competition on environmental pollution among 30 provincial governments in China's Mainland by using three methods: Moran index, local Moran index and spatial Durbin model. The results show that there exits competition among local governments in the scale of environmental protection expenditure, which belongs to strate. gy imitation behavior;the scale of environmental protection fiscal expenditure in eastern, central and western re. gions tends to converge;the impact of environmental protection fiscal expenditure in this region on environmental quality is not significant, but it aggravates the degree of environmental pollution in adjacent regions.The current fis. cal expenditure on environmental protection has not played its due role. There is a "free rider" phenomenon among the regions of environmental governance. The study also finds that trade openness can reduce the level of environ. mental pollution in the region. Therefore, we should establish a long-term accountability mechanism for environmen. tal protection assessment, accelerate the upgrading of regional industrial structure, encourage technological innova. tion of enterprises, and explore the coordinated regional governance of local government environmental pollution.