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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Has Ecological Protection and High-Quality
Development Been Promoted by Green Finance?
– Empirical Evidence from the Yellow River Basin
1
Qingdao Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China
2
Center for Yellow River Ecosystem Products, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China
Submission date: 2024-09-05
Final revision date: 2025-01-16
Acceptance date: 2025-02-16
Online publication date: 2025-04-18
Corresponding author
Kai-di Liu
Qingdao Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China
Qingdao Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
The Yellow River Basin’s ecological protection and high-quality development (EPHD)
are of practical significance for China’s economic development and ecological security. We take
103 cities in nine provinces along the Yellow River as research samples and measure green economy
efficiency (GEE) and green finance (GF) based on balanced panel data from 2011-2021. We utilize
the fixed effect and mediation effect models to explore the impact of GF on EPHD. We find that
(1) the GEE of cities in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River Basin has significantly
improved, and the stability in the lower reaches is better than in the upper reaches and shows a steady
increase in GF development throughout the basin. (2) GF has a significant role in boosting EPHD.
Green innovation, environmental regulation, and industrial structure are the supports for GF
to play its role. (3) The impact of GF on EPHD is characterized by regional heterogeneity,
and the GF enhancement effect is more obvious in low-pollution, high-financial expenditure, and highmarket-
oriented cities. We focus on the supportive role of GF on EPHD in the Yellow River Basin,
explain the mechanism and regional heterogeneity of this role, provide a theoretical basis for further
promoting EPHD in the Yellow River Basin, and put forward specific policy recommendations in many
aspects.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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| ISSN: | 1230-1485 |
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