Environmental Regulatory Policy Mix and High‐Quality Green Economic Development in China

Abstract

High‐quality green economic development is pivotal to Chinese modernisation. Employing city‐level panel data from 2006 to 2023, this study utilises the SBM‐GML index, the difference‐in‐differences (DID) model, and its spatial counterpart to investigate how the synergy between command‐and‐control and market‐based regulatory policies affects green growth. Key findings reveal that: (1) the regulatory mix significantly boosts high‐quality green economic development; (2) while this mix dampens efficiency change, it substantially accelerates technological progress, suggesting that gains in green total factor productivity (GTFP) are technology‐driven; (3) spatial spillover effects are heterogeneous, being overall positive among treated regions but negative among untreated regions; and (4) these spillovers exhibit clear distance‐based heterogeneity without following a distance‐decay pattern. Our findings offer actionable insights for refining urban environmental governance and fostering sustainable growth.