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• Both economic growth targets and environmental targets drive green growth. • The two types of targets crowd out each other in driving green growth. • They drive green growth through a shared channel of stimulating green innovation. Stimulating green growth is an important element of China's economic planning. Green growth has dual attributes of greenness and growth, while economic growth targets and environmental targets respond to these two attributes, respectively. Whether the combination of dual targets is more effective than a single target is critical to understanding the dynamics of green development. Although scholars and practitioners have studied government performance targets, we know little about interaction effects of different targets in a multi-target system. This study considers the interaction effects of environmental and economic growth targets on green growth. Using panel data from China's provinces, we find both economic growth and environmental targets can drive green growth. However, these targets crowd out each other in driving green growth, implying a trade-off between economic growth and environmental protection. The crowding-out effect exhibits a clear inverted U-shaped trend influenced by environmental governance and technological support, as it is prominent mainly in provinces with moderate environmental governance and technological support. Furthermore, economic growth targets affect green growth by promoting investment in research and development, while environmental targets drive green growth by promoting industrial agglomeration. Notably, green innovation is a shared channel for both types of targets to influence green growth, making both targets crowd out each other. These findings suggest that we should value synergy between multiple targets in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Target setting (or goal setting) is a process of incremental adaptation. Prior studies have mainly focus on organization-level adaptation of performance target setting. Based on the geographical leadership mobility within the Chinese political personnel system, this study explores leader-level adaptation of their organizations' performance target setting. Using a Chinese province-level panel data-set from 1999 to 2019, we empirically confirm that performance targets in one administrative jurisdiction where the current incumbent provincial governor previously served positively influence performance targets in their current provincial leadership position. Furthermore, if the performance targets in the provincial governor's previous working locality were achieved successfully, the provincial governor will be more motivated to learn from past target-setting experiences. Finally, provincial governors show significantly different policy learning motivation in economic growth target setting before and after the reform of China's cadre evaluation system in 2013. These findings show that local executives display conditional learning in their individual-level targets aspiration adaptation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By analyzing the data of Chinese industrial firms, we explore the association between governments' economic growth target management behaviour and the quality of local economic development. We find that the rise of economic growth pressure can decrease the total factor productivity (TFP) of local enterprises and has a negative impact on the quality of local economic development. Besides, the effect of economic growth pressure on local firms' productivity is more pronounced when firm is stated owned, when firm is located in cities with newly appointed officials, during the period of Communist Party of China National Congress (CPCNC), but would be attenuated if municipal party secretary has achieved a Ph.D. degree. Further mechanism analysis verifies that higher economic growth pressure could demolish the TFP of enterprises by distorting marginal revenue productivity of capital ( M R P K). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with Europe and the United States, there has been a unique phenomenon of high economic growth and low investment in research and development by firms in China. Based on the promotion tournament theory, this study examines the influence of economic growth target constraints on firm innovation, using over 8654 listed manufacturing businesses in 230 prefecture-level cities in China. We demonstrate that hard constraints and top-down amplification significantly inhibit firm innovation, whereas soft constraints promote it. Additionally, the inhibitory effect is considerably pronounced on breakthrough innovations, as well as in eastern regions and for SOEs. There is also preliminary evidence that hard constraints inhibit firm innovation through two channels: crowding out science and technology innovation expenditures (neglecting innovation) and inhibiting industrial structure upgrades (preferring production). Overall, our study contributes to understanding how macroeconomic growth targets affect firm innovation. The conclusions of our study apply to policymakers in China and other economies that regularly set economic growth targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying the effects of expected economic growth targets and environmental constraint targets set by Chinese local governments at the beginning of the year on high-quality development can provide empirical evidence for optimizing expected target management, improving macro-control, and fulfilling governance efficiency in the new development stage to some extent. Therefore, based on the theory of economic growth accounting and the stochastic frontier model, this paper calculated the level of high-quality development at the urban level, extracted the economic growth targets and environmental constraint targets from the Report on the Work of the Government with text analysis, constructed instrumental variables based on the spatial weight matrix, and then discussed the effects of the expected development targets formulated by local governments on high-quality development, conditional heterogeneity, and mechanisms. The results showed that: ① Excessive economic growth targets were not conducive to high-quality development, while environmental constraints targets had a significant role in promoting it and could slow down the erosion effect of excessive economic growth targets on high-quality development. This conclusion still held after solving a series of robustness tests, such as the endogenous bias. ② Heterogeneity analysis found that, with the implementation of the ecological civilization concept, China' s economy could achieve a win-win situation of quantity increase and quality improvement. To better promote high-quality development, the target positioning of cities with good economic foundations should weaken economic increment and strengthen environmental constraints, and the growth targets and environmental constraints set by local governments should be endogenous to their own regional resource endowments and leave appropriate elastic spaces. ③ The mechanism test showed that improving the economic growth targets reduced the level of innovation and raised the amount of new investment in the region, which was not conducive to high-quality development. Environmental constraints could promote technological innovation and limit the blind expansion of new investment, thus promoting high-quality development. Based on the above research conclusions, this paper summarizes policy implications from the aspects of political performance evaluation, formulation of expected development targets, technological innovation, and green development to promote the synergy between economic growth and green development in China and the synchronization of expected target management and high-quality development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an overarching goal, economic growth targets have a strong leading and constraining effect on the behavior of local governments. China's new-type urbanization strategy emphasizes balanced development across population, economic, social, space, ecological and income-gap dimensions and relies on multifaceted government policies. Therefore, setting reasonable economic growth targets has an important impact on the process of new-type urbanization. This paper uses panel data from 30 provinces between 2005 and 2020 to empirically examine the impact of economic growth targets on the new-type urbanization process. The results reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic growth targets and new-type urbanization, with public expenditure and land finance acting as a mediator and a moderator through fiscal expenditure. The mechanisms of influence are as follows: economic growth target—infrastructure construction, regional innovation, energy structure, and financial development—population development, economic quality, ecological civilization, and income gap—new-type urbanization. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the inverted U-shaped relationship is significantly present in the western and central regions of China and before 2014. This paper not only clearly illustrates the institutional mechanism of urbanization in China but also highlights its government-led and "land-for-security" approach, which has important implications for urbanization in other regions of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic growth target management is a government behavior that the authorities formulate at a specific time and direct the allocation of resources. Despite the importance of socio-economic development, economic growth targets have caused some potential hazards to the environment that cannot be ignored. Using a panel dataset of 278 prefecture-level cities in China over the period 2004–2019, the study employed a two-way fixed effects model to verify the inhibition effect of economic growth targets on green technology innovation (GTI). The results indicated that economic growth targets and hard constraints tended to have a significantly negative effect on GTI. More importantly, the results of the mediation effect test suggested a positive correlation between economic growth targets and the government fiscal expenditures and market segmentation, and both mediators played an intermediary role in the influence of economic growth target constraints restraining GTI. Other findings showed that the economic growth targets of prefecture-level cities had different impacts on GTI, which resulted from the different resource endowments, geographic locations, or periods. Overall, the results suggest that policymakers should lower the economic growth targets and use soft constraints to set them. The conclusions of this paper are applicable to policymakers not only in China but also other economies that regularly set economic growth targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a composite indicator that incorporates economic efficiency and environmental protection, ecological efficiency is a valuable tool for measuring regional green development and accelerating regional green transformation. As the economy transitions, Chinese economic growth targets affect local governments' behaviors, thereby impacting ecological efficiency. In this study, the ecological efficiency level of 284 cities in China was measured using the EBM-DEA method from 2007 to 2019, and the spatial exploration analysis method and the dynamic double fixed effect spatial Durbin model were applied to analyze urban ecological efficiency's spatial correlations, impacts, and mechanisms. The conclusions are as follows: China's urban ecological efficiency has increased over time. At the spatial level, it shows the distribution characteristics of east > northeast > middle > west. In terms of spatial agglomeration, there are typically spatial agglomerations, high–high agglomerations, and low–low agglomerations in Chinese cities' ecological efficiency. There is an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic growth target and ecological efficiency. According to regional differences, the economic growth target in the eastern region has a U-shaped impact on ecological efficiency, while in the central, northeast, and western cities they have an inverted U-shaped effect on ecological efficiency. In terms of the impact mechanism, through the intermediary effect test, it is found that appropriate economic growth target setting can promote the proportion of energy conservation and environmental protection expenditure and fiscal science and technology expenditure. Excessive economic growth target setting can inhibit the proportion of energy conservation and environmental protection expenditure and fiscal science and technology expenditure. The proportion of energy conservation and environmental protection expenditure and fiscal science and technology expenditure can promote ecological efficiency. The enlightenment is as follows: China should weaken the economic growth target in official promotion assessment, set differentiated economic growth targets for different regions, and increase the proportion of energy conservation and environmental protection expenditure and fiscal science and technology expenditure to promote ecological efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management of economic growth targets is a universal measure employed by worldwide governments for macroeconomic regulation. This paper aims to empirically investigate the impact of economic growth targets set by governments of prefecture-level cities on the environmental regulation intensity. We extracted panel data on annual economic growth targets and environmental regulation indicators from the government work reports (2009–2016) of 284 China's prefecture-level cities. The study concludes that an increase in economic growth target significantly weakens the intensity of environmental regulation. The conclusion still holds true after robustness tests, including changing measurement variables, regression samples, and conducting endogenous tests. The underlying reason for the inhibitory effect may be that in order to achieve economic growth targets, local governments prefer less stringent environmental regulations. They subsequently expand outputs in the short term by increasing the proportion of secondary industry in GDP, land transfer area, and fixed asset investment. Further research in this paper also finds that only cities with low economic development levels and low openness to the outside world experience the negative effect of a local government's annual economic growth target on environmental regulation intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the largest developing country in the world, China is committed to promoting high-quality economic development, while maintaining necessary economic growth. Given the downward pressure on economic growth alongside the goal of achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality, the scientific coordination of economic growth and carbon emissions is a vital consideration at local government level. Setting economic growth targets is an important element of economy management, one that also affects carbon emissions through factor allocation. This study analyzes the theoretical impact of setting economic growth targets based on carbon emissions, and conducts empirical research utilizing Chinese provincial-level panel data from 2000 to 2019. Accordingly, this study adopts the driving mechanism using mediating and moderating effect models. The economic growth target setting significantly reduced carbon emissions, and the study's result conclusively passed the robustness test. The carbon emission effect of the economic growth target setting has significant spatiotemporal heterogeneity. Setting economic growth targets affects carbon emissions by influencing industrial structure, factor mismatch, and innovative development. Moreover, the relationship between carbon emissions and economic growth targets is significantly regulated by government behavior and marketization levels. In future, optimizing the government's economic management behavior is an important measure for China to achieve the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality. For local governments, the focus is on formulating reasonable growth targets, promoting market-oriented reform, and accelerating innovation-driven transformation to achieve a high-quality synergy between economic growth and carbon emissions reduction. On the basis of enriching relevant research perspectives, this study provides empirical experience for understanding the carbon emission effects of economic management in the emerging countries, and the driving mechanism identification can provide reference for local governments to optimize economic management behavior. [Display omitted] • A heuristic analytical framework is provided to study the relationship between economic management and carbon emissions. • Setting economic growth targets can help to inhibit carbon emissions, and innovation is the key mechanism. • Marketization level significantly affects the relationship between economic growth target and carbon emission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the goal of "carbon neutrality", an economic development model that achieves emission reduction goals and ensures stable economic growth is currently being advocated by China. Based on provincial panel data in China from 2005 to 2016, we analyse the impact of economic growth target (EGT) constraints on environmental pollution using a spatial econometric method. The results indicate that EGT constraints significantly exacerbate environmental pollution in local regions and adjacent areas. Local governments are motivated to achieve economic growth goals at the expense of the ecological environment. The positive effects are attributed to a reduction in environmental regulation (ER), industrial structure upgrading and technological innovation and an increase in foreign direct investment (FDI). Moreover, environmental decentralization (ED) plays a positive regulatory role and can weaken the adverse influences of EGT constraints on environmental pollution. Interestingly, the nonlinear impact of EGT constraints on environmental pollution relies on different types of ED. Environmental administration decentralization (EDA) and environmental supervision decentralization (EDS) can reduce the positive effect of EGT constraints on environmental pollution, while an improvement in environmental monitoring decentralization (EDM) can increase the promoting influences of the constraints of economic growth goals on environmental pollution. The above conclusions still hold under a series of robustness tests. Based on the above findings, we suggest that local governments set scientific growth targets, establish scientific assessment indicators for officials, and optimize the ED management institution. [Display omitted] • The environmental pollution index in China is measured. • The influence of economic growth target on environmental pollution is investigated. • Economic growth target has a positive effect on environmental pollution. • Environmental decentralization reduces environmental pollution. • The economic growth targets have threshold effect on environmental pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous studies have revealed that developing green technology innovation is extremely important for minimizing haze pollution. However, limited by serious endogenous problems, research rarely focuses on the effect of haze pollution on green technology innovation. Based on a two-stage sequential game model including both production and government departments, this paper mathematically deduced the effect of haze pollution on green technology innovation. Then China's central heating policy is considered a natural experiment in our study to verify whether haze pollution is the key factor affecting the development of green technology innovation. The result that haze pollution significantly inhibits green technology innovation is confirmed, and this negative impact is mainly concentrated on substantive green technology innovation. Robustness tests have been performed, and the conclusion is still valid. Moreover, we find that government behavior can significantly affect their relationship. Specifically, the government's economic growth target will increase the haze pollution's ability to block the development of green technology innovation. However, if the government has a clear environmental target, their negative relationship will weaken. Based on the findings, targeted policy insights are presented in this paper. • Introducing a two-stage sequential game model and mathematically deduced how haze pollution affects green innovation. • China's central heating policy is considered a natural experiment. • The result that haze pollution significantly inhibits green technology innovation is confirmed. • The economic and environmental target constraints affect the impact of haze pollution on green technology innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To gain promotion advantages, municipal governments usually set higher growth targets than higher level governments to show loyalty and to signal ability in China, thereby forming growth target constraints. There is still a lack of research linking targets with urban development models. This paper contributes to this by examining the impact of economic growth target constraints on urban sprawl. We found that municipal governments are facing obvious economic growth target constraints, especially top-down overweighting constraints. The urban growth target constraint has significantly promoted urban sprawl, and that the impact is more obvious for cities that use hard constraint vocabulary to set growth targets, small and medium-sized cities and cities that failed to achieve their growth targets as scheduled last year. The mechanism is that the growth target constraint will lead to the local governments placing emphasis on land, ignoring population and investment bias in their emphasis on construction, and ignoring public services, which will lead to low density and decentralisation of cities. Our main novel empirical findings provide important clues for understanding the evolution of urban spatial morphology and urban development models in China. This will provide new policy insights for the transformation of urban models to more sustainable development. • City economic growth is an important macroeconomic management target set by the policy authorities. • City governments are facing obvious economic growth target constraints, especially top-down overweighting constraints. • The urban growth target constraint has significantly promoted urban sprawl. • The growth target constraint will lead to the local governments placing emphasis on land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic growth targets management is the driving force behind China's phenomenal economic achievement over the past decades. However, how it affects corporate environmental behavior remains ambiguous. Based on the data of China's A-share listed companies in the heavy-polluting industries from 2009 to 2019, this study sheds light on the effect of economic growth targets on corporate environmental investment. We find that corporates tend to crowd out their investment in environmental conservation when local governments are under high pressure to address growth targets. It suggests that corporates arrange their investment activities to cope with the distortion effect of government intervention. Consistent with our expectation, evidence shows that corporate environmental investment decreases given that competition on economic growth target drives local officials to relax environmental regulation intensity, especially for cities with high-promotion-incentives officials. Moreover, an interesting finding is that such an adverse effect is greater for SOEs, while ownership heterogeneity does not exist or is small when local officials have stronger promotion incentives. This study not only provides a deeper insight into the role of government intervention in corporate investment decisions, but also contributes to designing better official evaluation systems to achieve sustainable development in emerging economies. • Based on the fixed-effect panel model and the data of China's A-share listed companies in the heavy-polluting industries. • We shed light on the effect of economic growth targets on corporate environmental investment. • Results indicate that economic growth target significantly crowds out corporate efforts on environmental protection. • Environmental regulation is the mechanism through which growth targets affect corporate environmental investment. • Political connection stimulates the adverse effect of economic growth target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to data from the working reports of China's 244 prefecture-level city governments from 2004 to 2016, we used the instrumental variable method to identify the effects of governments' behavior of setting economic growth targets on regional green technology innovation. The results show that the setting and top-down amplification of economic growth targets have significant inhibitory effects on green technology innovation. The inhibitory effect is more prominent in cities with rapid economic growth and over fulfilment of economic growth targets. In addition, the higher the degree of over fulfilment of the economic target becomes, the more prominent the inhibiting effect is. An impact mechanism analysis reveals that economic growth target constraints affect regional green technology innovation through an industrial structure effect and foreign investment introduction effect. • Economic growth targets on green technology innovation are identified in China. • Setting and top-down amplification are inhibitory on green technology innovation. • Instrumental variable method considers endogenous factors in setting the targets. • Top-down amplification effects on green technology innovation are heterogeneous. • Industrial structure and foreign investment affect the effects of economic growth targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]