Abstract
Based on the panel data of 11 regions in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 1998 to 2016, we tested and analyzed the effects of high-tech industrial expansion on green development. For these regions in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, we wanted to investigate the potential linear relationship between the scale of high-tech industry and green development or the possible threshold effect. We wanted to determine if this relationship is different in various regions of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. According to the empirical test, we found that: (1) for the entire Yangtze River Economic Belt region, the influence of high-tech industrial scale on green development doubled the threshold effect, and a marginal efficiency diminishing effect existed with the further increase in scale; (2) due to the differences among the regions, the threshold effect was different in different regions, with a double threshold effect in the lower reaches, a single threshold effect in the middle reaches, and no threshold effect in the upper reaches; and (3) regarding the high-tech industrial scale, the downstream areas were too large to weaken its promoting effect on green development. In the middle reaches, the positive impact on green development was still increasing, and the high-tech industrial scale should be further expanded. However, in the upstream areas, high-tech industrial scales did not reach the threshold value and the relationship between the high-tech industrial scale and green development was linear. Therefore, local high-tech industries should be cultivated and developed.
Highlights
The concept of the green economy was first proposed by Pearce, a British environmental economist, from his Blue Book on Green Economies in 1989 [1]
Using the scale of high-tech industry as the threshold variable, we studied the non-linear impact of the scale of high-tech industry on green development in 11 provinces and municipalities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) region of China from 1998 to 2016 by using the panel threshold model with a fixed effect and drew the following conclusions: (1) In general, the expansion of the high-tech industry scale in the YREB promoted green development and the promoting effect was different in the regions of the upper, middle, and lower reaches
We verified that the scale of high-tech industry had a double-threshold effect on the green development efficiency
Summary
The concept of the green economy was first proposed by Pearce, a British environmental economist, from his Blue Book on Green Economies in 1989 [1]. The research on high-tech industry and green development originated from the relationship between high-tech industry and economic growth [12]. Some studies hypothesized that the development of high-tech industry plays a crucial role in economic growth, transformation, and upgrading the industrial structure [13,14]. Some scholars provided a more detailed analysis of the internal mechanism of promoting economic growth through the high-tech industry [15]. The YREB includes a large number of energy-intensive and high-tech industries, which straddles the central and western parts of China [36] For these regions in the YREB, we wanted to know if the relationship between the scale of high-tech industry and green development is linear or if a threshold effect exists. The structure of the remaining sections is as follows: Section 2 presents the measure of green development; Section 3 provides the threshold model and variable description; Section 4 outlines the empirical analysis; and the last section includes our conclusions and recommendations
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