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The hidden mediating role of innovation efficiency in coordinating development of economy and ecological environment: evidence from 283 Chinese cities

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Abstract

The advancement of technological innovations may facilitate the coordinated development of the economy and ecological environment (EGE); however, few studies have noted the role of innovation efficiency (INEF) as a bridge between economic development and EGE. To fill in this gap, this paper adopts DMSP/OLS nighttime light data to measure the level of economic development and the improved data envelopment analysis model to measure INEF, establishing an index system to quantify EGE. Then we propose the panel threshold-mediating (PTM) model that combines the panel threshold model and the mediating effect model. On these bases, considering INEF as a mediator, we use this novel PTM model to empirically test the nonlinear relationship between economic development and EGE in 283 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2018. The results indicate that (1) while economic development can improve EGE, its positive impact on EGE differs with different INEF thresholds. A higher INEF threshold indicates a stronger positive effect of economic development on EGE. (2) For the entire sample, the mediating effect of INEF between economic development and EGE is not significant. However, after applying the PTM model, we found that the mediating effect of INEF was concealed by the sample population. (3) When INEF is lower than 0.2381, its complete mediating effect is verified. When INEF is higher than 0.2381, its mediating effect is not significant. On the contrary, economic development directly improves EGE. (4) Industrial agglomeration, the scale of government expenditure, residents’ education level, degree of opening up, and transport infrastructure are all conducive to EGE. These findings can help cities at different INEF levels to achieve coordinated development of economy and EGE.

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Acknowledgements

This article has been corrected by Editage (http://www.editage.cn/) in English.

Funding

This study was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (N2124002-02); the 68th batch of general funding of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2020 M680960); youth project of Liaoning social science planning fund (Grant No. L20CJL001); National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42071154); Major Program of the Chinese National Social Science Foundation (Grant No. 18ZDA040); and Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Sciences Research Program Fund (Grant No. 20YJA790010).

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  1. School of Business Administration, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110167, China

    Song Wang & Jiexin Wang

  2. Institute of the Central China Development, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Fei Fan

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  1. Song Wang
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Song Wang provided ideas; Jiexin Wang completed the model derivation and thesis writing; and Fei Fan did the translation and checking.

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Highlights

• Innovation efficiency (INEF) bridges economic development (ECON) and ecological environment (EGE).

• Panel threshold-mediating (PTM) model is built to test the ECON-EGE nexus in China.

• INEF is a complete mediator for ECON to improve EGE when INEF is less than 0.2381.

• ECON directly improves EGE when INEF is higher than 0.2381.

• Policy advice is proposed for Chinese cities with various INEF levels to improve EGE.

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Wang, S., Wang, J. & Fan, F. The hidden mediating role of innovation efficiency in coordinating development of economy and ecological environment: evidence from 283 Chinese cities. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 47668–47684 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13808-7

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