IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i19p12425-d929113.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Local Government Debt and Green Total Factor Productivity—Empirical Evidence from Chinese Cities

Author

Listed:
  • Ke Mao

    (Business School, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411105, China
    Business School, Hunan Institute of Technology, Hengyang 421002, China)

  • Pierre Failler

    (Economics and Finance Group, Portsmouth Business School, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO1 3DE, UK)

Abstract

In recent years, the expansion of local government debt (LGD) in China has caused widespread concern. Enhancing green total factor productivity (GTFP) is an important way to coordinate resources, environment, and regional development and is an important indicator to realize the transformation of green economic development. Scientific assessment of the impact of LGD on GTFP helps promote the transformation of green economic development. This paper selects sample data from 271 cities in China from 2010 to 2019 and empirically investigates the mechanisms of LGD, green innovation, and financial market development on GTFP. The results show that (1) LGD expansion significantly suppresses GTFP in China; (2) green innovation mediates between the two, and LGD suppresses GTFP by reducing the level of green innovation; and (3) financial market development can mitigate the negative impact of LGD on urban GTFP. Therefore, the governance of LGD should be strengthened, the financial market environment should be optimized, the distortion of financial resources should be corrected, and innovative financing modes such as green finance and green credit should be encouraged to enhance GTFP.

Suggested Citation

  • Ke Mao & Pierre Failler, 2022. "Local Government Debt and Green Total Factor Productivity—Empirical Evidence from Chinese Cities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-13, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12425-:d:929113
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12425/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12425/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chen, Zhuo & He, Zhiguo & Liu, Chun, 2020. "The financing of local government in China: Stimulus loan wanes and shadow banking waxes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 42-71.
    2. Zheng, Mingbo & Feng, Gen-Fu & Jang, Chyi-Lu & Chang, Chun-Ping, 2021. "Terrorism and green innovation in renewable energy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    3. Yi Huang & Marco Pagano & Ugo Panizza, 2020. "Local Crowding‐Out in China," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(6), pages 2855-2898, December.
    4. Panizza, Ugo & Presbitero, Andrea F., 2014. "Public debt and economic growth: Is there a causal effect?," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 21-41.
    5. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-00555625 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Jaejoon Woo & Manmohan S. Kumar, 2015. "Public Debt and Growth," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 82(328), pages 705-739, October.
    7. Lin William Cong & Haoyu Gao & Jacopo Ponticelli & Xiaoguang Yang, 2019. "Credit Allocation Under Economic Stimulus: Evidence from China," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(9), pages 3412-3460.
    8. Ms. Yuanyan S Zhang & Mr. Steven A Barnett, 2014. "Fiscal Vulnerabilities and Risks from Local Government Finance in China," IMF Working Papers 2014/004, International Monetary Fund.
    9. Mouez Fodha & Thomas Seegmuller, 2014. "Environmental Quality, Public Debt and Economic Development," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 57(4), pages 487-504, April.
    10. Xu, Nannan, 2019. "What gave rise to China’s land finance?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    11. Eberhardt, Markus & Presbitero, Andrea F., 2015. "Public debt and growth: Heterogeneity and non-linearity," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 45-58.
    12. Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2010. "Growth in a Time of Debt," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 573-578, May.
    13. Nicolas Clootens, 2017. "Public Debt, Life Expectancy, and the Environment," Post-Print hal-03533082, HAL.
    14. Cull, Robert & Li, Wei & Sun, Bo & Xu, Lixin Colin, 2015. "Government connections and financial constraints: Evidence from a large representative sample of Chinese firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 271-294.
    15. Christoph Winter, 2017. "The impact of government debt on the long-run natural real interest rate – a quantitative evaluation," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(20), pages 1429-1434, November.
    16. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 483-499, June.
    17. Mouez Fodha & Thomas Seegmuller, 2014. "Environmental Quality, Public Debt and Economic Development," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 57(4), pages 487-504, April.
    18. Xiaojun Sun & Jing Tang & Shilong Li, 2022. "Promote Green Innovation in Manufacturing Enterprises in the Aspect of Government Subsidies in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-16, June.
    19. Weixiang Zhao & Yankun Xu, 2022. "Public Expenditure and Green Total Factor Productivity: Evidence from Chinese Prefecture-Level Cities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-27, May.
    20. Li, Hongbin & Zhou, Li-An, 2005. "Political turnover and economic performance: the incentive role of personnel control in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(9-10), pages 1743-1762, September.
    21. Virgiliu Midrigan & Daniel Yi Xu, 2014. "Finance and Misallocation: Evidence from Plant-Level Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(2), pages 422-458, February.
    22. Maria Carratù & Bruno Chiarini & Antonella D’Agostino & Elisabetta Marzano & Andrea Regoli, 2019. "Air pollution and public finance: evidence for European countries," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 46(7), pages 1398-1417, November.
    23. Tian, Ying & Feng, Chao, 2022. "The internal-structural effects of different types of environmental regulations on China's green total-factor productivity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    24. de Mello, Luiz Jr, 2000. "Fiscal Decentralization and Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations: A Cross-Country Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 365-380, February.
    25. Graham, John R. & Leary, Mark T. & Roberts, Michael R., 2015. "A century of capital structure: The leveraging of corporate America," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(3), pages 658-683.
    26. Chong-En Bai & Chang-Tai Hsieh & Zheng Michael Song, 2016. "The Long Shadow of a Fiscal Expansion," NBER Working Papers 22801, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    27. Tone, Kaoru, 2002. "A slacks-based measure of super-efficiency in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 32-41, November.
    28. Aizenman, Joshua & Marion, Nancy, 2011. "Using inflation to erode the US public debt," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 524-541.
    29. Wu, Haitao & Hao, Yu & Ren, Siyu, 2020. "How do environmental regulation and environmental decentralization affect green total factor energy efficiency: Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    30. Checherita-Westphal, Cristina & Rother, Philipp, 2012. "The impact of high government debt on economic growth and its channels: An empirical investigation for the euro area," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(7), pages 1392-1405.
    31. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Yuan, Yan & Li, Aijun & Wang, Daoping, 2017. "Methodological comparison among radial, non-radial and intermediate approaches for DEA environmental assessment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 439-453.
    32. Peisen Liu & Houjian Li, 2020. "Does bank competition spur firm innovation?," Journal of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 519-538, January.
    33. Chen, Wen & Zhu, Yufeng & He, Zehui & Yang, Yang, 2022. "The effect of local government debt on green innovation: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    34. Nicolas CLOOTENS, 2014. "Public Debt, Life Expectancy and the Environment," LEO Working Papers / DR LEO 2562, Orleans Economics Laboratory / Laboratoire d'Economie d'Orleans (LEO), University of Orleans.
    35. Song, Malin & Du, Juntao & Tan, Kim Hua, 2018. "Impact of fiscal decentralization on green total factor productivity," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 359-367.
    36. Junhong Bai & Jiayu Lu & Sijia Li, 2019. "Fiscal Pressure, Tax Competition and Environmental Pollution," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 73(2), pages 431-447, June.
    37. Tone, Kaoru, 2001. "A slacks-based measure of efficiency in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 130(3), pages 498-509, May.
    38. Zenglian Zhang & Wenju Zhao, 2018. "Research on Financial Pressure, Poverty Governance, and Environmental Pollution in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-24, June.
    39. Xie, Rui & Fu, Wei & Yao, Siling & Zhang, Qi, 2021. "Effects of financial agglomeration on green total factor productivity in Chinese cities: Insights from an empirical spatial Durbin model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jinyu Chen & Dandan Zhu & Shijie Ding & Jingxiao Qu, 2024. "Government environmental concerns and corporate green innovation: Evidence from heavy‐polluting enterprises in China," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(3), pages 1920-1936, March.
    2. Li, Ke & Xu, Chang & Tang, Liwei, 2024. "The important of eliminating energy market distortions: The perspective of industrial green productivity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    3. Yongquan Zhao & Ziwei Zhang, 2023. "Distribution of Spatial and Temporal Heterogeneity of Green Total-Factor Productivity in the Chinese Manufacturing Industry, and the Influencing Factors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-15, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Wen & Zhu, Yufeng & He, Zehui & Yang, Yang, 2022. "The effect of local government debt on green innovation: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    2. Gu, Yanwei & Guo, Jing & Liang, Xiao & Zhao, Yajun, 2022. "Does the debt-growth link differ across private and public debt? Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    3. Qu, Xi & Xu, Zhiwei & Yu, Jinxiang & Zhu, Jun, 2023. "Understanding local government debt in China: A regional competition perspective," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    4. Chen, Zhuo & He, Zhiguo & Liu, Chun, 2020. "The financing of local government in China: Stimulus loan wanes and shadow banking waxes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(1), pages 42-71.
    5. Panizza, Ugo & Fatás, Antonio & Ghosh, Atish R. & ,, 2019. "The Motives to Borrow," CEPR Discussion Papers 13735, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Han Gao & Minming Lan & Jie Li & Tianhang Zhou, 2024. "Economic policy uncertainty and local government debt: Evidence from China," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(4), pages 1103-1141, November.
    7. Deng, Jiapin & Liu, Qiao, 2024. "Good finance, bad finance, and resource misallocation: Evidence from China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    8. Panizza, Ugo & Huang, Yi & Varghese, Richard, 2018. "Does Public Debt Crowd Out Corporate Investment? International Evidence," CEPR Discussion Papers 12931, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Yi Huang & Marco Pagano & Ugo Panizza, 2020. "Local Crowding‐Out in China," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(6), pages 2855-2898, December.
    10. Nicolas Clootens & Francesco Magris, 2021. "The Environmental Unsustainability of Public Debt: Non-Renewable Resources, Public Finances Stabilization and Growth," Working Papers 2021.06, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    11. Chen, Suyun & Li, Zongze & Xie, Feixue & Xu, Xiaofang, 2024. "The signaling effect of local government debt: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PA).
    12. Séverine MENGUY, 2019. "Does public indebtedness constrain or can it favor economic growth? A simple analytical modeling," Bulletin of Applied Economics, Risk Market Journals, vol. 6(2), pages 1-29.
    13. Wang, He & Yao, Yang & Zhou, Yue, 2022. "Markets price politicians: Evidence from China’s municipal bond markets," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    14. Yun Jung Kim & Jing Zhang, 2021. "The Relationship Between Debt and Output," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 69(1), pages 230-257, March.
    15. César Fernando Reis & Jelson Serafim, 2018. "Growth and Debt in Angola at Provincial Level," CEsA Working Papers 172, CEsA - Center for African and Development Studies.
    16. De Vita, Glauco & Trachanas, Emmanouil & Luo, Yun, 2018. "Revisiting the bi-directional causality between debt and growth: Evidence from linear and nonlinear tests," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 55-74.
    17. Mika, Alina & Zumer, Tina, 2017. "Indebtedness in the EU: a drag or a catalyst for growth?," Working Paper Series 2118, European Central Bank.
    18. Wu, Haijun & Yang, Jidong & Yang, Qijing, 2021. "The pressure of economic growth and the issuance of Urban Investment Bonds: Based on panel data from 2005 to 2011 in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    19. Rubo Zhao & Yixiang Tian & Ao Lei & Francis Boadu & Ze Ren, 2019. "The Effect of Local Government Debt on Regional Economic Growth in China: A Nonlinear Relationship Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-22, May.
    20. Mitchener, Kris & Trebesch, Christoph, 2021. "Sovereign Debt in the 21st Century: Looking Backward, Looking Forward," CEPR Discussion Papers 15935, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12425-:d:929113. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.