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The article aims to study the coupling coordination and spatial correlation effects of green finance (GF) and high-quality economic development (HQED) in 30 Chinese provinces. The index system of GF and HQED is constructed by selecting relevant index data from 2007 to 2017. The index of GF and HQED is measured by the entropy value method. Next, the coupling coordination degree (CCD) and spatial association strength are calculated based on the index using the coupling coordination degree model and the gravity model. Then the driving factors of the CCD between GF and HQED are analyzed by using geographic detectors. Finally, the spatial association network is constructed and its robustness is studied. The research results show that the coupling coordination degree between GF and HQED in each province is generally low, with strong regional heterogeneity, and the coupling coordination degree shows a trend of decay from the eastern region to the western region, but the western region has more room for development. Green credit, green, coordination, and sharing are the strong driving factors of the CCD between GF and HQED. The network of spatial association between GF and HQED in each province is gradually tightened, making the western peripheral provinces more closely connected with the eastern provinces through the intermediate node provinces. The network robustness of GF and HQED is more influenced by provinces with higher node degree values. Accordingly, the article proposes that China should continuously improve relevant GF policies, environmental disclosure systems, enhance green innovation technology and guide private capital to enter the GF market.

Water resources utilization, social economy development, and ecological environment protection are key factors in regional sustainable development. Scientific evaluation of regional coordinated development status and diagnosis of regional uncoordinated development constraints will improve the management level of decision-makers. At present, most developing countries have the problem of unbalanced regional development caused by the one-sided pursuit of a certain system. Taking 14 prefecture-level cities in Hunan Province as cases, this paper analyzed the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of the carrying capacity level of the water resources system, the development level of the social economy system and the protection level of the ecological environment system in each evaluation unit based on entropy weight method and order parameter analysis. Based on the theory of coordinated development, a calculation model of a coordinated development degree was constructed, and the corresponding evaluation criteria were formulated. The spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of a coordinated development degree in each research unit were analyzed and evaluated. The results showed that the average coordinated development degree of Hunan Province from 2004 to 2016 evolved from “Light disorder recession” to “Nearly disorder recession”, then to “Reluctance coordinated development”. Restricted by different systems, the coordinated development degree in each research unit presented spatial and temporal differences. According to different development stages and the characteristics of different regions, corresponding development strategies can be formulated to provide the guidance for coordinated the development of regions.

Estimating the impact of environmental taxes on economic output is of great theoretical value for promoting green growth in China. Using a dataset of 232 cities from 2004 to 2014, this paper investigates the effect of pollution levy standards reform (PSR) on green total factor productivity (GTFP). We employ directional distance functions (DDF) computed by data envelopment analysis (DEA) to derive GTFP based on the Malmquist–Luenberger (ML) productivity index. Then, we investigate the impacts of PSR on China’s GTFP using Difference-in-Differences (DID) estimation. The results reveal that PSR has an inhibitory effect on GTFP, via the mechanism of technological change. Furthermore, PSR has heterogeneous impacts on different city types. The results indicate that PSR statistically significantly reduces GTFP in key environmental protection cities (KEPCs), large cities, and eastern cities, but that it has less impact on non-KEPCs, small/medium cities, megacities, and cities in central areas.

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