The Impact of Green Development on Modernization in China: Evidence from 108 Cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt

ABSTRACT

Building a stronger modern socialist country is China’s second centenary goal, and ecological beauty is the innovation of the connotation of modernization. How to realize the drive toward modernization with green development is an urgent topic. Based on the municipal panel data of the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2009–2019 in China and selecting the air circulation coefficient and river network density as instrumental variables, this research examines the impact mechanism of green development on modernization. The results show the following: (1) green development significantly promotes modernization; (2) green development indirectly promotes the improvement of modernization through technological innovation, foreign capital flow, and talent attraction; and (3) the promotion of green development to modernization is affected by the urban size, and medium-sized cities benefit most. The study results provide empirical support and a decision-making basis for promoting the win-win situation of green development and modernization construction.

KEYWORDS:

• Green development
• modernization
• Yangtze River Economic Belt
• China

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• C23
• O18
• Q56
• R11

Authors’ Contributions

The three authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis, and manuscript.

Availability of Data and Materials

Data are available from the authors upon request.

Consent To Participate

All authors participated in this article.

Consent To Publish

All authors have given consent to the publication of this article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical Approval

This is an original article that did not use other information that requires ethical approval.

Notes

1. Due to space limitations, detailed non-logarithmic statistical descriptions of the core variables are not listed, but the data are available upon request.

Additional information

Funding

Chien-Chiang Lee is grateful to the Social Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province of China for financial support through Grant No: 21JL02.