{"title":"Does local government debt pressure hamper green transition? Evidence from China","authors":"Song Nie , Gang Zeng , Xu Zhang , Qiaozhe Guo","doi":"10.1016/j.eap.2024.10.006","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The accumulated local government debt will change government fiscal behavior, which will further impact regional environment performance to a certain extent. However, the literature on how local government debt pressure (LGDP) affect green transition is scarce. By measuring the green transition by green total factor productivity (GTFP), we analyze the effect of LGDP on GTFP. We find that LGDP significantly reduces the GTFP. The negative effect acts through reducing green innovation and loosing environmental regulation. In addition, the negative impact will be more pronounced in cities with weak governance, development, and environmental protection efforts. Finally, enhancing marketization, lowering GDP growth target, and reducing tax burdens can alleviate the adverse effect of LGDP on GTFP. The conclusions of this study provide theoretical support for appropriate government debt governance and have important practical significance for green sustainable development in developing countries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54200,"journal":{"name":"Economic Analysis and Policy","volume":"84 ","pages":"Pages 1185-1201"},"PeriodicalIF":7.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Economic Analysis and Policy","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0313592624002613","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The accumulated local government debt will change government fiscal behavior, which will further impact regional environment performance to a certain extent. However, the literature on how local government debt pressure (LGDP) affect green transition is scarce. By measuring the green transition by green total factor productivity (GTFP), we analyze the effect of LGDP on GTFP. We find that LGDP significantly reduces the GTFP. The negative effect acts through reducing green innovation and loosing environmental regulation. In addition, the negative impact will be more pronounced in cities with weak governance, development, and environmental protection efforts. Finally, enhancing marketization, lowering GDP growth target, and reducing tax burdens can alleviate the adverse effect of LGDP on GTFP. The conclusions of this study provide theoretical support for appropriate government debt governance and have important practical significance for green sustainable development in developing countries.
期刊介绍:
Economic Analysis and Policy (established 1970) publishes articles from all branches of economics with a particular focus on research, theoretical and applied, which has strong policy relevance. The journal also publishes survey articles and empirical replications on key policy issues. Authors are expected to highlight the main insights in a non-technical introduction and in the conclusion.