Coordination Relationship Between Green Innovation Efficiency and Environmental Protection: Evidence From the Yangtze River Economic Belt

Green innovation plays an important role in coordinating the relationship between ecological environment and economic development and has become a new driving force for the development of a resource-saving and environment-friendly economy. To explore the effects and logic of innovation efficiency and environmental protection, using the inter-provincial (city) panel data of the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2007 to 2017 in China, the green innovation efficiency and environmental protection level of the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Economic Belt were analyzed. Results show that the overall environmental protection level of the Yangtze River Economic Belt is on the rise. From a regional perspective, the environmental protection level in the upper reaches is the highest, which is greater than the overall level of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, followed by the lower and middle reaches, which are less than the overall level of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The efficiency of green innovation has promoted the overall environmental protection level of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, inhibited the environmental protection level in the downstream areas, promoted the environmental protection level in the upstream areas, and has no obvious impact on the environmental protection level in the middle reaches. Further mechanism analysis shows that the possible transmission path of green innovation efficiency to environmental protection is as follows: green innovation efficiency promotes the environmental protection level by improving the ecological environmental efficiency. The robustness of the above conclusion is tested, and it has good robustness. The research conclusions of this study provide reliable empirical evidence and policy enlightenment for the development and optimization of green innovation efficiency and the realization of green innovation efficiency driving environmental protection.