Open AccessThe impact of local government debt on urban environmental pollution and its mechanism: Evidence from China
Author(s) -
Zhenyu Qi,
Siying Yang,
Dawei Feng,
Wenzhi Wang
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0263796
Subject(s) - debt , local government , panel data , business , environmental quality , government (linguistics) , environmental governance , mechanism (biology) , china , natural resource economics , economics , corporate governance , finance , geography , political science , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology , epistemology , law , econometrics
As an important financial means for governments to improve the quality of economic development, government debt greatly affects the quality of local environmental governance. Based on a theoretical mechanism analysis that uses the pollutant emissions panel data and new caliber urban investment bond data of 273 cities in China, this paper empirically tests the impact of local government debt on urban emission reduction and the mechanism that drives this impact. We find that local government debt significantly promotes urban emissions reduction, and as urban pollution becomes more aggravated, this promoting effect has a dynamic path, first strengthening and then weakening. The role of local government debt in promoting urban emission reduction is characterized by both temporal and spatial heterogeneity. A mechanistic analysis shows that local government debt can promote urban emission reduction by promoting urban environmental innovation, with green invention patents demonstrating a stronger intermediary role than green utility model patents.