IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i2p818-d1321190.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Research on the Impact of Heterogeneous Environmental Regulation on the Coordinated Development of China’s Water–Energy–Food System from a Spatial Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Shaohui Zou

    (School of Management, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710054, China
    School of Energy, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Middle Part of Yanta Road, Xi’an 710054, China
    Energy Economy and Management Research Center, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710054, China)

  • Zhe Liao

    (School of Management, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710054, China)

  • Yichen Liu

    (School of Business, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield HD1 3DH, UK)

  • Xiangbo Fan

    (School of Energy, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Middle Part of Yanta Road, Xi’an 710054, China)

Abstract

Water resources, energy, and food are fundamental resources for ensuring human social development. The coordinated development of these resources contributes to improving the quality of the social environment, promoting harmony between humans and nature, and achieving economic, social, and ecological sustainability. This study utilizes panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2003 to 2020. Using a coupled coordination degree model, the coupling coordination degree of the Water–Energy–Food (WEF) system is calculated, and the spatiotemporal evolution and social network connections of WEF coupling coordination are analyzed. The spatial Durbin model is employed to investigate the spatial spillover effects of heterogeneous environmental regulation on the coordinated development of the WEF system. The mechanism model is used to explore the pathways through which heterogeneous environmental regulation influences the coordinated development of the WEF system. The results of this study demonstrate that the coupling coordination index of China’s provincial-level WEF system has shown a steady upward trend, except for a slight decline in a few years. Over the research period, there has been a significant improvement in regional coupling coordination levels. There are large differences in the level of WEF coupling coordination among different regions, with a distribution pattern of south > north and east > west. Both formal and informal environmental regulations have significant positive effects on the coupling coordination development of the WEF system, as well as significant positive spatial spillover effects. Formal environmental regulation has a stronger impact compared to informal environmental regulation. Foreign direct investment and industrial structural upgrading are important pathways for environmental regulation to promote the coordinated development of the WEF system. Both formal and informal environmental regulations can promote the coordinated development of the WEF system by facilitating foreign direct investment and industrial structural upgrading. This study not only provides important scientific evidence and decision-making references for policymakers in formulating environmental regulation policies but also offers new evidence support for the theory of regional development disparities.

Suggested Citation

  • Shaohui Zou & Zhe Liao & Yichen Liu & Xiangbo Fan, 2024. "Research on the Impact of Heterogeneous Environmental Regulation on the Coordinated Development of China’s Water–Energy–Food System from a Spatial Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-22, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:2:p:818-:d:1321190
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/2/818/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/2/818/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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).
    2. Shasha Xu & Weijun He & Juqin Shen & Dagmawi Mulugeta Degefu & Liang Yuan & Yang Kong, 2019. "Coupling and Coordination Degrees of the Core Water–Energy–Food Nexus in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-18, May.
    3. Liang Chen & Wanli Li & Kaibin Yuan & Xiaoqian Zhang, 2022. "Can informal environmental regulation promote industrial structure upgrading? Evidence from China," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(19), pages 2161-2180, April.
    4. Hua, En & Wang, Xinyu & Engel, Bernie A. & Qian, Haiyang & Sun, Shikun & Wang, Yubao, 2021. "Water competition mechanism of food and energy industries in WEF Nexus: A case study in China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    5. Chen, Danling & Hu, Wenbo & Li, Yuying & Zhang, Chaozheng & Lu, Xinhai & Cheng, Hui, 2023. "Exploring the temporal and spatial effects of city size on regional economic integration: Evidence from the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    6. Elahi, Ehsan & Khalid, Zainab & Zhang, Zhixin, 2022. "Understanding farmers’ intention and willingness to install renewable energy technology: A solution to reduce the environmental emissions of agriculture," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 309(C).
    7. Bei Xiong & Ruimei Wang, 2020. "Effect of Environmental Regulation on Industrial Solid Waste Pollution in China: From the Perspective of Formal Environmental Regulation and Informal Environmental Regulation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-17, October.
    8. Luc Anselin & Raymond J. G. M. Florax, 1995. "New Directions in Spatial Econometrics: Introduction," Advances in Spatial Science, in: Luc Anselin & Raymond J. G. M. Florax (ed.), New Directions in Spatial Econometrics, chapter 1, pages 3-18, Springer.
    9. Danish & Recep Ulucak & Salah Ud‐Din Khan & Muhammad Awais Baloch & Nan Li, 2020. "Mitigation pathways toward sustainable development: Is there any trade‐off between environmental regulation and carbon emissions reduction?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 813-822, July.
    10. Jing Zhang & Xiaolan Fu, 2008. "FDI and environmental regulations in China," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 332-353.
    11. Shichun Du & Jing Liu & Zetian Fu, 2021. "The Impact of Village Rules and Formal Environmental Regulations on Farmers’ Cleaner Production Behavior: New Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(14), pages 1-20, July.
    12. Shuai Shao & Zhigao Hu & Jianhua Cao & Lili Yang & Dabo Guan, 2020. "Environmental Regulation and Enterprise Innovation: A Review," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 1465-1478, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Qiao Chen & Yan Mao & Alastair M. Morrison, 2021. "Impacts of Environmental Regulations on Tourism Carbon Emissions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-16, December.
    2. Liu, Duan & Yu, Nizhou & Wan, Hong, 2022. "Does water rights trading affect corporate investment? The role of resource allocation and risk mitigation channels," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    3. Zeng, Juying & Pagàn-Castaño, Esther & Ribeiro-Navarrete, Samuel, 2022. "Merits of Intercity Innovation Cooperation of Environment-friendly Patents for Environmental Regulation Efficiency," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    4. Ye, Jiangfeng & Wan, Qunchao & Li, Ruida & Yao, Zhu & Huang, Dujuan, 2022. "How do R&D agglomeration and economic policy uncertainty affect the innovative performance of Chinese high-tech industry?," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    5. Hu, Jun & Wu, Huiying & Ying, Sammy Xiaoyan, 2022. "Environmental regulation, market forces, and corporate environmental responsibility: Evidence from the implementation of cleaner production standards in China," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 606-622.
    6. Bin Fan & Mingyang Li, 2022. "The Effect of Heterogeneous Environmental Regulations on Carbon Emission Efficiency of the Grain Production Industry: Evidence from China’s Inter-Provincial Panel Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-27, November.
    7. Xu, Yong & Li, Shanshan & Zhou, Xiaoxiao & Shahzad, Umer & Zhao, Xin, 2022. "How environmental regulations affect the development of green finance: Recent evidence from polluting firms in China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 917-926.
    8. Yu Hao & Yunxia Guo & Haitao Wu, 2022. "The role of information and communication technology on green total factor energy efficiency: Does environmental regulation work?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 403-424, January.
    9. Xu, Deyi & Abbas, Shah & Rafique, Kalsoom & Ali, Najabat, 2023. "The race to net-zero emissions: Can green technological innovation and environmental regulation be the potential pathway to net-zero emissions?," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    10. Jun Wang & Guixiang Zhang, 2022. "Can Environmental Regulation Improve High-Quality Economic Development in China? The Mediating Effects of Digital Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-21, September.
    11. Xie, Li & Zhou, Zhichao & Hui, Shimin, 2022. "Does environmental regulation improve the structure of power generation technology? Evidence from China's pilot policy on the carbon emissions trading market(CETM)," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    12. Dongsheng Yan & Ningru Wang & Yimeng Guo & Xiangwanchen Wang & Wei Sun, 2024. "Economic Growth Targets, Innovation Transformation, and Urban Carbon Emissions: An Empirical Study of the Yangtze River Delta," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-20, October.
    13. Runnan Jiang & Chengxiao Jin & Haoyu Wang, 2024. "Research on Energy Conservation and Emission-Reduction Effects of Green Finance: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-19, April.
    14. Zhipeng Han & Liguo Wang & Feifei Zhao & Zijun Mao, 2022. "Does Low-Carbon City Policy Improve Industrial Capacity Utilization? Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-26, September.
    15. Feifei Ye & Rongyan You & Haitian Lu & Sirui Han & Long-Hao Yang, 2023. "The Classification Impact of Different Types of Environmental Regulation on Chinese Provincial Carbon Emission Efficiency," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-24, August.
    16. Geng, Yong & Liu, Wei & Li, Kai & Chen, Hanshu, 2021. "Environmental regulation and corporate tax avoidance: A quasi-natural experiment based on the eleventh Five-Year Plan in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    17. Ma, Guangcheng & Cao, Jianhua & Famanta, Mahamane, 2023. "Does the coordinated development of two-way FDI increase the green energy efficiency of Chinese cities? Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 59-77.
    18. Bai, Dongbei & Du, Lizhao & Xu, Yang & Abbas, Shujaat, 2023. "Climate policy uncertainty and corporate green innovation: Evidence from Chinese A-share listed industrial corporations," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PB).
    19. Jie Tao & Weidong Cao & Yebing Fang & Yujie Liu & Xueyan Wang & Haipeng Wei, 2022. "Spatiotemporal Differences and Spatial Spillovers of China’s Green Manufacturing under Environmental Regulation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-20, September.
    20. Zejun He & Yunfei Jia & Yifan Ji, 2023. "Analysis of Influencing Factors and Mechanism of Farmers’ Green Production Behaviors in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-25, January.

    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:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:2:p:818-:d:1321190. 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.