Quality Improvement Paths for Sustainable Economic Development from the Perspective of Green Ecological Governance
Against global sustainable development strategies and China's dual-carbon targets, green ecological governance has become a core driver of high-quality economic growth. Grounded in environmental and institutional economics, this study builds a four-dimensional theoretical framework. Using panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2013 to 2024, it takes green total factor productivity (GTFP) as the core indicator to empirically examine the impact and transmission paths of green ecological governance on sustainable economic development.Results show that green ecological governance significantly fosters sustainable economic development. Both green innovation and industrial structure upgrading play partial mediating roles, with green innovation exerting a stronger driving effect. Digital environmental governance produces a positive moderating effect, and the promotion effect is more evident in eastern regions and highly digitalized areas. Targeted strategies are proposed to support coordinated progress between ecological protection and high-quality economic growth.