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Have public environmental appeals inspired green total factor productivity? empirical evidence from Baidu Environmental Search Index

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Linhui Wang at Xiamen University
Linhui Wang
Bei Liu
Bei Liu
Bei Liu
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Yongda He at Shanxi University of Finance and Economics
Yongda He
Zhiqing Dong
Zhiqing Dong
Zhiqing Dong
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Abstract and Figures

Literatures focus on whether formal environmental regulatory policies can effectively stimulate green total factor productivity (GTFP), but generally ignore the role of informal institutions such as public environmental appeals. This paper uses inter-provincial panel data and Non-Radial Slacks-Based Measure (SBM) model to measure GTFP. With the Baidu Environmental Search Index presenting the public environmental appeals, the dynamic panel System Generalized Method of Moments (SYS-GMM) and Differenced Generalized Method of Moments (DIFF-GMM) methods are used to explore the effect, transmission mechanism and conditions of the public's environmental demands on green total factor productivity. The study concludes that public environmental appeals are beneficial to improve GTFP, and this result still holds after endogenous and robustness tests. The mechanism results show that the green technology innovation effect is an important mechanism for public environmental appeals to improve GTFP. In addition, public environmental appeals of different pollutants and different locations have heterogeneous effects on GTFP. In addition, the public wealth level, human capital level, and government institutional environment play an important role in the impact of public environmental appeals on GTFP.
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Vol.:(0123456789)
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https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23993-8
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Have public environmental appeals inspired green total factor
productivity? empirical evidence fromBaidu Environmental Search
Index
LinhuiWang1· BeiLiu2· YongdaHe3 · ZhiqingDong4· ShixiangWang5
Received: 27 April 2022 / Accepted: 31 October 2022
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2022, corrected publication 2022
Abstract
Literatures focus on whether formal environmental regulatory policies can effectively stimulate green total factor pro-
ductivity (GTFP), but generally ignore the role of informal institutions such as public environmental appeals. This paper
uses inter-provincial panel data and Non-Radial Slacks-Based Measure (SBM) model to measure GTFP. With the Baidu
Environmental Search Index presenting the public environmental appeals, the dynamic panel System Generalized Method
of Moments (SYS-GMM) and Differenced Generalized Method of Moments (DIFF-GMM) methods are used to explore
the effect, transmission mechanism and conditions of the public’s environmental demands on green total factor productiv-
ity. The study concludes that public environmental appeals are beneficial to improve GTFP, and this result still holds after
endogenous and robustness tests. The mechanism results show that the green technology innovation effect is an important
mechanism for public environmental appeals to improve GTFP. In addition, public environmental appeals of different pol-
lutants and different locations have heterogeneous effects on GTFP. In addition, the public wealth level, human capital level,
and government institutional environment play an important role in the impact of public environmental appeals on GTFP.
Keywords Public environmental appeals· Green total factor productivity· Dynamic panel model· Green technology innovation
Introduction
Since the reform and opening up, the left side of China’s
“Environmental Kuznets Curve” is clearly characterized,
i.e., economic growth is accompanied by deterioration of
environmental quality (Tian etal. 2020). According to the
2018 China Ecological Environment Bulletin, only 121 of
338 cities at the prefecture level and above met air quality
standards in 2018, accounting for 35.8% of all cities, and
the number of days with PM2.5 as the primary pollutant
accounted for 60% of the heavily polluted days and above.
How to realize the vision of “green mountains and clear
waters” to create “golden mountains and silver mountains”
has become the key to ensuring high-quality economic
development under the new economic normal.
In the new normal stage of the economy, especially under
the constraints of resources and environment, improving
GTFP is gradually becoming an important means to pro-
mote the harmonious development of economic growth and
ecological environment. Generally, the government tends to
achieve green development through various command-and-
control or market-incentive-based environmental regulation
instruments. It is undeniable that these formal command-
type environmental regulations may help reduce pollution
and improve environmental quality in the short term, but it
is unclear whether the role of green technology innovation
and GTFP can be improved. “Following cost effects” and
Responsible Editor: Baojing Gu
Bei Liu, Zhiqing Dong, and Shixiang Wang are considered as
equally contributing first author.
* Yongda He
heyd@sxufe.edu.cn; hyda2008@126.com
1 School ofBusiness andManagement, Jilin University,
Changchun130012, China
2 School ofManagement, Nanjing University ofPosts
andTelecommunications, Nanjing210003, China
3 School ofStatistics, Shanxi University ofFinance
andEconomics, Taiyuan030006, China
4 School ofEconomics, East China Normal University,
Shanghai200241, China
5 School ofStatistics, Jilin University ofFinance
andEconomics, Changchun130117, China
/ Published online: 24 November 2022
Environmental Science and Pollution Research (2023) 30:30237–30252
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
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