经济增长目标动员是否加剧了雾霾污染?——基于中国地级市的研究

Does the Mobilization of Economic Growth Targets Aggravate Haze Pollution?—Research Based on Prefecture-level Cities in China

当前,高质量发展是全面建设社会主义现代化国家的首要任务,而正确处理经济增长目标与环境保护目标之间关系是高质量发展的题中应有之义.本文基于223个地级以上城市的面板数据集,从经济增长目标动员的视角切入,探究雾霾污染问题.研究结果显示,从全国层面来看,经济增长目标动员显著增加了雾霾污染;同级政府间的策略模仿显著增加了本地的雾霾污染,上级政府的目标考核能够有效纠正下级政府的治理偏好.异质性分析结果表明,经济增长目标动员的雾霾污染效应在不同行政级别的地级市之间不存在显著差异,但在位于东部地区的地级市和人口规模更大的地级市中的效应更大.进一步分析发现,目标动员约束强度加剧了经济增长目标动员的雾霾污染效应,该效应是地方政府基于投资拉动增长的发展模式放松环境规制强度的结果,具体原因是污染治理投资不足.本研究对解决地方政府经济增长与环境保护的"两难权衡"以及加快转变经济发展模式具有积极的政策启示.

Currently,high-quality development is the primary task of building a modern socialist country,and the relationship between economic growth target and environmental protection target is the proper meaning of high-quality development.Based on the panel data set of 223 cities at or above the prefecture level,this paper explores the problem of haze pollution from the perspective of economic growth target mobilization.The research results show that from the national level,the mobilization of economic growth target significantly increases the haze pollution;the strategy imitation of governments at the same level significantly increases the local haze pollution,and the target assessment of higher governments can effectively correct the governance preference of lower governments.The results of the heterogeneity analysis showed that the haze pollution effect mobilized by the economic growth target did not differ significantly between the prefecture-level cities with different administrative levels,but the effect was greater in the prefecture-level cities located in the eastern region and the prefecture-level cities with larger population size.Further analysis shows that the constraint intensity of target mobilization exacerbates the haze pollution effect of economic growth target mobilization,which is the result of the relaxation of environmental regulation intensity in the development model of local governments based on investment-driven growth.The specific reason is insufficient investment in pollution control.This study has positive policy implications to solve the"dilemma balance"between local government economic growth and environmental protection and to accelerate the transformation of economic development model.