Term Limits of Public Officials, Environmental Regulations, and Sustainable Development: An Analysis Based on Empirical Spatial Econometrics

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the impact of public officials’ term limits and environmental regulations on sustainable development using provincial panel data in China for the period 1986–2013. Applying empirical spatial econometrics, the spatial dependence of green productivity growth, calculated by the global Malmquist–Luenberger (ML) index, across provinces has been supported. There appears to be a U relationship between the term limits of provincial governors and the green productivity growth. The Porter hypothesis does not exist in this sample. Finally, the study provides some policy implications.

KEY WORDS:

• environmental regulations
• green total factor productivity
• public officials’ term limits
• spatial econometrics

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank J. Paul Elhorst, Andrew A. Duncan, Yifan He, Leping Yu, and two anonymous reviewers for help with this article.

Funding

The authors acknowledge funding from the Projects 71333007 and 71673114 supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge funding from the Projects 71333007 and 71673114 supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.