国家重点生态功能区的环境质量与经济增长效应评估

Assessing the environmental quality and economic growth of the National Key Ecological Function Areas

中国的国家重点生态功能区依托于主体功能区规划,以改善生态环境质量为首要任务,但实行严格的产业准入制度,故其生态保护目标能否兼顾经济增长值得关注。为回答该问题,该研究将国家重点生态功能区的设立作为一项“准自然实验”,基于2001—2019年地级市面板数据,采用多期渐进双重差分(DID)评估该生态政策对环境质量和经济增长的影响。研究发现,国家重点生态功能区不仅能够提升环境质量,同时还能促进经济增长,从而实现“绿水青山”与“金山银山”兼得的双赢局面,这一结论在反事实检验、排除其他政策干扰等多重情景下依然稳健。机制分析表明,国家重点生态功能区能够通过国土空间配置效应、产业结构升级效应、生产率提升效应及要素集聚效应促进环境质量与经济增长的协同提升。异质性分析表明,国家重点生态功能区的政策效应在不同的功能区类型、不同的地理空间及不同的分位数水平上存在异质性。水土保持型与生物多样性维护型、西南地区和长江中下游地区及东南沿海地区的生态功能区均实现了环境质量与经济增长的共同提升,水源涵养型、东北地区及华北地区仅提升了环境质量,防风固沙型及西北地区则仅促进了经济增长。随着分位点的上升,国家重点生态功能区对环境质量的正向作用逐渐增强,对经济增长的正向作用逐渐降低。该研究有利于生态政策可持续性实施的经验积累和制度完善,可为实现生态环境保护与稳定经济增长的均衡协同提供借鉴。

Based on China’s policy of main functional area planning,the National Key Ecological Functional Areas(NKEFAs)regard the improvement of ecological environmental quality as their primary task.However,due to the strict industrial access system,attention should be paid to whether their ecological protection objectives can be balanced with economic growth.To answer this question,the es⁃tablishment of NKEFAs was treated as a quasi-natural experiment,and by employing China’s prefecture-level data from 2001 to 2019,this study used the time-varying DID model to assess the impact of this ecological policy on environmental quality and economic growth.The study found that:①The NKEFAs could improve environmental quality and promote economic growth,so that a win-win situation involving the realization of‘lucid waters and lush mountains’and‘gold and silver mountains’could be achieved.This finding re⁃mained robust under multiple scenarios,including counterfactual testing and excluding other policy interference.②The mechanism analysis showed that the NKEFAs could improve both environmental quality and economic growth through the effects of territory spatial optimization,industrial structure upgrading,productivity enhancement,and factor agglomeration.③The policy effects of the NKEFAs showed heterogeneity among functional area types,geographic spaces,and quantile levels.Water conservation type and biodiversity maintenance type ecological functional areas as well as such areas in China’s southwest region,middle and lower reaches of the Yang⁃tze River,and southeast coastal areas,all achieved joint improvement of environmental quality and economic growth,while water con⁃servation type ecological functional areas and such areas in the northeast and north regions only saw improved environmental quality,and windbreak sand-fixation type ecological functional areas and such areas in the northwest region only promoted economic growth.With the rise of the quantile,the positive effect of NKEFAs on environmental quality gradually increased,while the positive effect on economic growth gradually decreased.This study is conducive to the accumulation of experience and institutional improvement in the sustainable implementation of ecological policies,and it can serve as a useful theoretical reference for achieving a balanced synergy be⁃tween ecological environmental protection and stable economic growth.