摘要
绿色转型发展既要考虑生态系统的整体性改善,又要考虑如何通过高水平保护支撑高质量发展,而财政治理的激励功能和协调作用契合了生态环境治理过程中解决激励问题和推动合作治理的需要。本文以中国“山水林田湖草沙一体化保护与修复工程”(以下简称“山水工程”)为例,阐释央地分权框架下财政治理如何通过“事权与支出责任匹配”和“项目制”方式解决地方政府生态环境治理激励不足和协调不畅的问题。基于一套丰富且独特的数据集,采用双重差分方法,识别“山水工程”所蕴含的以财政为基础的系统性治理模式在推动绿色转型发展中的作用。实证发现,“山水工程”在短期内使得生态环境状况呈现出整体性改善趋势,体现出较好的激励和协同效果,且经过一系列检验后结果依然稳健。异质性分析揭示了合作模式、财政能力和环境本底基础对政策效果的影响差异。进一步检验发现,上述治理成效得益于“山水工程”对地方形成了积极的政治激励、绿色协同激励和经济激励。本文研究有助于揭示财政在生态环境治理中的独特作用,对环境分权、环境治理合作、项目制等理论具有明显的文献贡献,也为进一步推动经济社会全面绿色低碳转型和生态产品价值实现提供了政策启示。
Chinese modernization is the modernization of harmony between humanity and nature.The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed that“We must work to improve ecological conservation systems and make concerted efforts to cut carbon emissions,reduce pollution,pursue green development,and boost economic growth;We must actively respond to climate change and move faster to improve the institutions and mechanisms for applying the principle that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”.It further proposed that“We will implement the management system for ecological conservation redlines,improve the mechanisms for integrated protection and systematic governance of mountain,water,forest,farmland,grassland,and desert ecosystems,and develop multiple funding mechanisms for ecosystem protection and restoration”.Evidently,green transformation and development must consider both the holistic enhancement of the ecosystem and the pursuit of high-quality development achieved through high-level protection.How to incentivize local governments to consistently advance environmental governance,how to achieve multi-factor linkages,multi-step coordination,and multi-region(and sector)cooperation,and how to promote the realization of ecological product value are key challenges in environmental governance and green transformation and development.The incentive mechanisms and coordination functions of fiscal governance align with the need to address incentive challenges and promote cooperative governance in the process of environmental governance,becoming the foundation and an important pillar in constructing a modern environmental governance system.This paper uses the case study of the“Integrated Conservation and Restoration Project of Mountains,Rivers,Forests,Farmlands,Lakes,Grasslands,and Deserts”in China(referred to as the Shan-Shui Initiative)to illustrate how fiscal governance under the framework of central-local government contracts addresses the issues of insufficient incentives and coordination in local environmental governance through the“matching of powers and expenditure responsibilities”and the“project system”approach.Drawing on a comprehensive and distinctive dataset constructed from the ecological environment status indicators published by China's environmental monitoring stations,this study employs a difference-indifferences method to identify the critical role of the fiscally-based systematic governance model embedded in the ShanShui Initiative in advancing green transformation and development.Empirical findings reveal that the Shan-Shui Initiative has initiated a trend of comprehensive enhancement in the ecological environment within the short term,showcasing positive effects in terms of incentives and coordination.Specifically,the ecological environment status in experimental counties improved by an average of 0.064 levels relative to control counties,equating to an average annual increase of 90.75%in the ecological condition index.The probabilities of achieving“good”and“excellent”ecological environment status rose by 1.8%and 9.7%,respectively.These results remain robust across a series of robustness checks.Heterogeneity analysis reveals differences in policy effects based on collaboration models,fiscal capacity,and environmental baselines.Effective cooperation between regions and across government levels supports better environmental governance outcomes,with more significant improvements observed in regions with stronger fiscal capacity and better baseline environmental conditions.Further analysis shows that the success of the Shan-Shui Initiative stems from its ability to provide positive political,green synergy,and economic incentives for local governments.Specifically,the project heightened local governments'attention to environmental governance,alleviated fiscal pressure,and increased land transfer revenue.Additionally,the project has effectively advanced the concerted efforts to pursue green development,cut carbon emissions,reduce pollution,and boost economic growth,fostering a coordinated approach between high-level protection and high-quality development.Based on a simple cost-benefit analysis,the Shan-Shui Initiative can generate benefits sufficient to offset costs in 7.5 years after implementation.Overall,this study confirms the unique role of the fiscally-based systematic governance model embedded in the Shan-Shui Initiative in advancing green transformation and development.It makes a significant contribution to the literature on environmental decentralization,environmental governance collaboration,and project-based approaches.Additionally,it provides policy insights for further promotion of comprehensive green and low-carbon transformation of the economy and society,as well as the realization of ecological product value:firstly,appropriately increase the central government's powers and expenditure responsibilities in environmental governance and green transformation;secondly,em-phasize enhancing the“green content”of ecological products through foundational and public ecological protection and restoration,forming a“turning green into gold”mechanism for realizing ecological product value;thirdly,properly manage the relationship between government and market in the process of green transformation,promoting the interplay and alignment of a well-functioning government with an efficient market.
作者
祁毓
杨春飞
陈诗一
QI Yu;YANG Chunfei;CHEN Shiyi(School of Public Finance and Taxation,Zhongnan University of Economics and Law;Economics and Management School,Wuhan University;School of Economics,Fudan University)
出处
《经济研究》
CSSCI
北大核心
2024年第10期132-150,共19页
Economic Research Journal
基金
国家自然科学基金项目(72121002、72173136)
中央高校基本科研业务费交叉创新团队项目(2722024AK004)的资助。
关键词
绿色转型
财政治理
激励与协调
山水工程
Green Transformation
Fiscal Governance
Incentives and Coordination
Shan-Shui Initiative
作者简介
祁毓,电子信箱:qiyu1987918@126.com;通讯作者:杨春飞,电子信箱:yangcf@whu.edu.cn;陈诗一,电子信箱:shiyichen@fudan.edu.cn。
