Does Green Finance and Water Resource Utilization Efficiency Drive High-Quality Economic Development?

Abstract

Achieving the improvement of water resource efficiency is the common key foundation for the country to promote the adjustment of the energy structure, promote the development of low-carbon technology and environmental protection, cope with global climate change, and achieve the strategic goal of “carbon peaking and carbon neutralization”. The study explores the role of green finance and water resource utilization efficiency in high-quality economic development (HQED). The development index of resource utilization efficiency constructs an indicator system of HQED from three dimensions of HQED capability, structure, and benefit, constructs a spatial lag model, introduces a nested matrix, and empirically studies their spatial effect. The mediating effect of water resource utilization efficiency was verified using the mediating effect model. According to the empirical analysis, the results are as follows: (1) green finance and water resource utilization efficiency are important influencing factors for promoting HQED, and green finance can promote HQED with direct short-term effects but no direct effects in the long term; (2) the short-term direct effect of water resource utilization efficiency can also improve HQED and has no effect in the long term; (3) the short-term effect of the interaction term of green finance and water resource utilization efficiency exists as a negative effect, but the long-term, indirect, and total effect cannot affect HQED; (4) green finance and water resource utilization efficiency show no spatial effect on HQED; green finance has an incomplete intermediary role in promoting HQED.