The Impact of “Dual-Control” Regulations on the Green Total Factor Efficiency of Shaoxing’s Industrial Sector

Abstract

Promoting the decoupling between economic growth and carbon emissions through government intervention is very crucial for China to achieve carbon neutrality. This paper evaluates the green development performance with the help of the green total factor efficiency index and explores the impact of “Dual-Control” regulations on the green development of the industrial sector in Shaoxing using the differences-in-differences model. The results show that there are great diversities in the green development of different industries and that the energy-intensive industries have relatively poorer performance. The “Dual-Control” regulations significantly narrow the differences and promote the green development of Shaoxing’s industry but result in profit erosion for industrial enterprises owing to direct energy-saving expenditure and other indirect policy execution costs. The results of the dynamic analysis reveal that the negative economic impact has hysteresis and persistence. Different from previous studies, this paper considers the cross effects of different policies and examines the comprehensive effect of the policy package under the “Dual-Control” regulations. The conclusion provides a supplement to revealing the relationship between government regulation and energy conservation and emission reduction.