Exploring the impact of human capital development and environmental regulations on green innovation efficiency

Following a consensus among world leaders at COP26 and COP27, every country is trying to deal with environmental issues. In this context, the role of green innovation efficiency is crucial, as it can positively drive the environmental efforts of a country. However, past research has ignored the methods through which a country can drive green innovation efficiency. To address this research gap, this work selected data from 2007 to 2021 in China, measured the green innovation efficiency (GIE) of each province, and constructed a systematic GMM model to analyze the role of environmental regulation policy and human capital on GIE. The findings of the study are as follows. (1) The overall GIE in China is 0.537, which is still at a low efficiency level, and high efficiency is mainly concentrated in the eastern region, while the western region has the lowest level of GIE. (2) The relationship between environmental regulations and GIE in the whole country and in the eastern, central, and western regions is shown to be “U” shaped. The regression coefficient of human capital on GIE is found to be positive, but there is regional variation, which is not significant in the western region and shows a significant positive correlation in other regions. (3) There is regional heterogeneity in FDI’s impact on GIE; the results in the eastern region are consistent with the national results, which can promote GIE, but not significantly in the central and western regions; marketization can improve GIE in the national and eastern regions, but is not significant in the central and western regions; scientific and technological innovation can promote GIE except in the central region; and economic development can improve GIE in all regions. Studying the impact of environmental regulation and human capital development on the efficiency of green innovation and realizing the coordinated development of the environment and economy under institutional innovation and human capital innovation is of great significance for the development of China’s low-carbon economy and has important reference value for accelerating sustainable economic development.