Do Environmental Target Constraints of Local Government affect High-Quality Economic Development? Evidence from China

Abstract

Abstract This paper investigates the impact of local government environmental target constraints on high-quality economic development. We measure the city-level economic high-quality development index, and collate data on environmental target constraints in government work reports of 230 cities from 2004 to 2013. Using the DID model and the instrumental variable method, we find that: (1) environmental target constraints significantly promote the high-quality development of the local economy, when environmental performance is included in the officials’ performance evaluation; (2) environmental target constraints are heterogeneous across regions and have a greater promoting effect on cities in eastern China than in central and western China. The results of a series of robustness tests support these conclusions.