The Dual Effects of Environmental Regulation and Financial Support for Agriculture on Agricultural Green Development: Spatial Spillover Effects and Spatio-Temporal Heterogeneity

Abstract

Environmental regulation and financial support for agriculture are regarded as important means to promote agricultural green development. Based on provincial panel data of 31 provinces in China between the years 2000 and 2020, this paper explores the interactive effect, spatial spillover effect and spatio-temporal heterogeneity of environmental regulation and financial support for agriculture on agricultural green development. The empirical conclusions are as follows: (1) The level of agricultural green development increases year by year with a spatial characteristic of high in the east and low in the west. Moreover, there is a spatial spillover effect of agricultural green development with spatiotemporal heterogeneity. (2) Environmental regulation would not only reduce the level of local agricultural green development but also inhibit the adjacent regions, which is contrary to the impact of financial support for agriculture. (3) The interactive relationship of environmental regulation and financial support for agriculture has a spatial spillover effect on agricultural green development, which is more significant in the systematization stage of agricultural green development and most significant in the east-middle region.

Research on the Level of Agricultural Green Development, Regional Disparities, and Dynamic Distribution Evolution in China from the Perspective of Sustainable Development

“…investigated the interactive effects of environmental regulation and fiscal support for agriculture on agricultural green development using provincial panel data from China. Their study concluded that the interaction between environmental regulation and fiscal support for agriculture had a positive spatial spillover effect on agricultural green development [34].…”

Reform of Agricultural Land Property Rights System and Green and High-Quality Development of Agriculture: Empirical Evidence Based on China’s “Three Rights Separation” Reform

“…The agricultural Total factor productivity calculated by taking agricultural land, labor and machinery as input indicators and agricultural gross output value as output indicators represents high-quality agricultural development. On this basis, the output indicators added with carbon emissions represent green agricultural development [26]. Therefore, this paper uses the green total factor productivity of agriculture in 30 provinciallevel administrative regions (excluding Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) from 2001 to 2020 as a proxy variable for green agricultural development, mainly because the green total factor productivity of agriculture can be more accurately estimated by including agricultural resource factors and agricultural carbon emissions into the TFP growth measurement framework, and whether the agricultural economic development approach meets the "win-win" requirements of energy conservation and emission reduction and agricultural economic growth.…”

Environmental regulation and high-quality agricultural development

“…On the other hand, environmental regulations are also considered as an important factor in promoting green development in agriculture [18]. Reasonable environmental regulation can promote the upgrading of local agricultural industry structure and technological innovation, and reduce agricultural pollution and agricultural carbon emissions [19]. However, strict environmental regulation will be higher than the input costs of agricultural development, which will not only fail to improve agricultural inefficiencies, but will instead exacerbate agricultural pollution in both local and neighboring areas [20,21], thus ultimately inhibiting the greening of agriculture in local and neighboring regions.…”