AccScience Publishing / AJWEP / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/AJWEP026180119
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ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Research on the impact of environmental regulation on high-quality economic development

Jia Wang1 ,  Bo Ai1 ,  Hangdi Zhao1*
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1 The Institute for Sustainable Development, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, China
AJWEP, 026180119 https://doi.org/10.36922/AJWEP026180119
Received: 28 April 2026 | Revised: 15 June 2026 | Accepted: 16 June 2026 | Published online: 7 July 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

This study investigates how environmental regulation (envir) affects high-quality economic development using panel data from 278 Chinese prefecture-level cities over 2005–2023. Unlike prior work, this paper quantitatively compares three mediating pathways, green technological innovation (GTI), industrial structure rationalization (ISR), and industrial structure upgrading (ISU), within a unified mediation framework. The results show that envir’s impact operates almost entirely through indirect channels. GTI acts as a crucial mediator, transmitting 91.7% of the total effect, making it the strongest and most policy-responsive pathway. ISR functions at 61.3% transmission, while ISU operates at only 18.9% transmission. Regional heterogeneity corresponds to the marginal regulatory effectiveness gradient. The positive effect is strongest in the western region, insignificant in the central region, and negative (though not significant) in the eastern region. Policy implications are that environmental policies should prioritize green innovation incentives, complemented by structural rationalization, while adopting region-specific stringency levels to avoid diminishing returns.

Keywords
Environmental regulation
High-quality economic development
Green technological innovation
Rationalization of industrial structure
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, Electronic ISSN: 1875-8568 Print ISSN: 0972-9860, Published by AccScience Publishing
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