地方政府竞争模式转变与碳排放绩效——来自地级市政府工作报告的经验证据

The Transformation of Local Government Competition Mode and Carbon Emission Performance——Empirical Evidence from Working Reports of Municipal Governments

地方政府“为增长而竞争”的传统竞争模式是中国粗放型经济增长的制度根源之一。随着经济发展方式的转变和政府治理能力的提升,我国地方政府竞争模式呈现出朝向更加追求“绿色低碳发展”的重要转变。本文基于274个地级市政府工作报告文本数据,对我国地方政府竞争模式的动态变化趋势进行定量识别分析,并采用强度双重差分模型对地方政府竞争模式转变的碳减排绩效进行实证评估。研究发现:第一,地方政府竞争模式转变显著降低了碳排放强度,促进了碳排放绩效的提升;第二,地方政府竞争模式转变对低碳试点城市具有较强的碳减排效应,说明低碳城市试点政策取得了较好的绩效;第三,地方政府竞争模式转变不仅没有对经济增长产生显著的不利影响,而且从长期来看政府治理能力的提升能够助推经济增长动能转换,实现绿色低碳的高质量发展。

The traditional mode of"competition for growth"by local governments is a critical source of China’s extensive economic growth.With the transformation of the economic development mode and the improvement of the government’s governance capacity,the competition mode of local governments in China has undergone important changes.Based on the working reports of 274 municipal governments,this paper quantitatively identifies the dynamic trend of the competition mode of local governments in China,and uses the intensity DID model to empirically evaluate the carbon emission performance of the transformation of local government competition mode.The research finds that:first,the transformation of local government competition mode has significantly reduced carbon emission intensity and promoted the improvement of local carbon emission performance.Second,the transformation of local government competition mode has a stronger carbon emission reduction effect on low-carbon pilot cities,indicating that low-carbon city pilot policies have achieved good effects.Third,the transformation of the competition mode of local governments has no adverse impact on economic growth,and in the long run,the improvement of the government’s governance capacity can promote the transformation of economic growth patterns,which is conducive to the realization of green and low-carbon development.