Abstract
Ecological deterioration, air pollution, and resource depletion have shrouded the vast regions of China, raising widespread concerns about the sustainable development of the domestic economy. Although financial agglomeration has become a pivotal approach for China to realize green transformation, there is a lack of evidence against the causal correlation between financial agglomeration and sustainable development of the regional economy. To fill this gap, using the data of 29 provincial capital cities in China spanning from 2009 to 2019 and adopting individual time bidirectional fixed effect model, IV-GMM approach, and alternative modeling techniques, this paper investigates the impact of financial agglomeration on sustainable development of the regional economy for the first time. The results indicate that there is a significant positive correlation between financial agglomeration and the sustainable development of the regional economy. Financial agglomeration facilitates the improvement of regional energy efficiency, and the latter further mediates the relationship between financial agglomeration and sustainable development of the regional economy. In addition, the empirical results also demonstrate that the higher the economic policy uncertainty, the weaker the positive relationship between financial agglomeration and energy efficiency. The present study is of great significance for China to implement energy-saving and emission-reduction tasks and achieve sustainable urban construction.
Highlights
With increasing appeals to overcome energy shortage and environmental degradation, it is imperative for local government to continuously seek effective approaches to improve energy using efficiency, strengthen the green industry, and facilitate sustainable growth, especially for China
It is observed that the sustainable development level of China’s regional economy is relatively low because the average value of RESD is very small, that is, 0.359. e maximum value of financial agglomeration is 0.793, with a minimum value of 0.015 and an average value of 0.196. is reflects that there exist remarkable differences in the degree of financial agglomeration among various provinces, and the level of financial agglomeration in China is comparatively low in general. e average value of energy efficiency is 0.657, with a standard deviation of 0.336, which demonstrates that the energy efficiency levels of different regions are quite different
Financial agglomeration imposes a positive impact on energy efficiency, which furnishes preliminary evidence for hypothesis 2. e correlation analysis results are basically consistent with the prior theoretical expectations
Summary
With increasing appeals to overcome energy shortage and environmental degradation, it is imperative for local government to continuously seek effective approaches to improve energy using efficiency, strengthen the green industry, and facilitate sustainable growth, especially for China. A total of 1152 days of severe pollution occurred in 337 cities in 2020, and the days with PM2.5, PM10, and O3 as the primary pollutants accounted for 77.7%, 22.0%, and 1.5% of the days with severe pollution and above, respectively. In this context, local government realizes that restoring nature is vital to the survival of the Earth and mankind and proposes to actively establish a green, low-carbon, and circular economic system. Regional economic development is still unbalanced in China due to its vast territory and differentiated resource endowments. erefore, considering the heterogeneity of economic development, how to enhance the sustainable development level of Mathematical Problems in Engineering
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