生态补偿奖惩与黄河流域空气污染:效应与机制OACHSSCD

Strengthening ecological governance in the Yellow River Basin is a critical national strategy for consolidating China's ecological security barrier and achieving high-quality development.Under the"dual constraints"of high transition costs and tight fiscal constraints,innovating fiscal incentive mechanisms is particularly essential to stimulate local governments' initiative in ecological governance in the region.Exploiting the implementation of the ecological compensation reward and penalty policy as a quasi-natural experiment,this study employs a staggered Difference-in-Differences model based on panel data from sixty prefecture-level cities in the Yellow River Basin to analyze its impact on air pollution.The empirical results demonstrate that the ecological compensation reward and penalty policy significantly reduces air pollution.Mechanism analysis suggests that the policy achieves pollution reduction by elevating local governments' environmental attention,expanding fiscal expenditures on environmental protection,and fostering regional green innovation.Heterogeneity analysis indicates that this abatement effect is more pronounced in cities characterized by stronger fiscal autonomy,non-resource-based industrial structures,and higher levels of public environmental concern.Further investigation reveals that the policy not only achieves a synergistic reduction in both conventional pollutants and carbon emissions,but also significantly promotes the growth of green total factor productivity.This study provides robust empirical evidence for further optimizing ecological compensation mechanisms and coordinating ecological protection with high-quality development in the Yellow River Basin.