Evaluating the Synergistic Effects of Urban Environmental Governance: Achieving Pollution Mitigation and Economic Growth

Abstract

Under the dual constraints of economy and environment, whether and how to exploit the synergistic effect of urban environmental governance achieves has garnered considerable attention but remains understudied. This study examines the synergistic impacts and green development mechanism of urban environmental governance in China, drawing on theoretical analyses and empirical evidence. Specifically, we focus on the perspectives of pollution reduction and economic growth, we endeavors to integrate pollution, governance and economic growth into a unified research framework, and empirically examines policy effects and mechanisms of China’s urban environmental governance, and analyzes the direct and indirect channels of the synergistic impacts, and discusses green development mechanisms and paths. We can find that: (1) the effectiveness of urban environmental governance in reducing haze pollution and its contribution to economic growth remains significant even after conducting a series of robustness tests on a quasi-natural experiment. (2) an inverted "U" curve relationship exists between urban environmental governance and Green total factor productivity (GTFP), namely, with the gradual increase in the level of urban environmental governance, GTFP rises firstly and then falls. (3) significant heterogeneity exists among the cities with different levels of development and geographical location, more significant in eastern regions and economically developed cities. This study would contribute to understanding policy effect of urban environmental governance in China, and enriching the theoretical foundation of environmental economics and the empirical evidence from China.