The Impact of Official Promotion Incentives on Urban Ecological Welfare Performance and Its Spatial Effect

Can Zhang () and Jixia Li
Additional contact information
Can Zhang: Institute of Comprehensive Management, Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
Jixia Li: School of Government, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 7, 1-29

Abstract: Economic growth, environmental protection, and welfare improvement are closely related to local officials. Therefore, exploring the paths that affect ecological welfare performance (EWP) from the perspective of official promotion incentives has certain practical significance. EWP is an indicator that measures the welfare relationship between ecological resource inputs and outputs, reflecting the sustainable development status of a region. First, considering the background of the dual carbon goals, the EWPs of 284 cities from 2007 to 2020 were measured by constructing an indicator system and using the super-SBM-DEA method. Second, by constructing a theoretical framework of “official promotion incentives-fiscal responsiveness-EWP”, we empirically tested the impact and mechanism of official promotion incentives on urban EWP; finally, based on regional and official age heterogeneity, we explored the differential impacts of official promotion incentives on urban EWPs. The results show that official promotion incentives inhibit the improvement of urban EWP by reducing financial responsiveness; in terms of spatial spillovers, under three types of spatial weight matrices, promotion incentives for officials in neighboring areas can significantly improve the EWPs of local cities. From the perspective of regional differences, official promotion incentives in the eastern region significantly improved urban EWP, official promotion incentives in the western and northeastern regions significantly inhibited urban EWP, and official promotion incentives in the central region had no significant impact on urban EWP. From the perspective of official age, local officials aged 53 and 54 intensified the inhibitory effect of promotion incentives on urban EWP. By constructing a theoretical framework and empirical testing, this paper provides theoretical support and empirical evidence for the impact of official promotion incentives on urban EWP. The results help to understand the relationship between official promotion incentives and sustainable development, and promotes sustainable urban development.

Keywords: official promotion incentives; ecological welfare performance (EWP); fiscal responsiveness; spatial econometric model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/7/3085/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/7/3085/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:7:p:3085-:d:1371808

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().