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Study on the influencing factors and profitability of horizontal ecological compensation mechanism in Yellow River Basin of China

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Abstract

Horizontal ecological compensation mechanism provides solutions for cross-domain protection of ecological environment, and the key to its implementation depends on the establishment of a suitable incentive mechanism of economic benefits to influence the conservation behavior of each interest body. This article constructs a horizontal ecological compensation mechanism for the Yellow River Basin through indicator variables to analyze the profitability of the participating subjects. Based on data from 83 cities in the Yellow River Basin in 2019, an empirical study was conducted using a binary unordered logit regression model to examine the regional benefits generated by the horizontal ecological compensation mechanism in the Yellow River Basin. The level of urban economic development and ecological environment management significantly affects the profitability of horizontal ecological compensation mechanisms in the Yellow River basin. The heterogeneity analysis finds that the profitability of the horizontal ecological compensation mechanism in the Yellow River basin is stronger in the upstream central and western regions, which are more likely to produce better ecological compensation benefits as recipients of compensation funds. Governments in the Yellow River Basin should strengthen cross-regional cooperation, continuously improve the capacity building and modernization of ecological and environmental governance in the basin, and provide solid institutional guarantees for environmental pollution management in China.

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The datasets used during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Sciences Research Fund Project (22YJA790040); Key Scientific Research Project of Hunan Provincial Education Department (20A135), Chinese National Funding of Social Sciences (19BTJ060), Philosophy and Social Science Foundation of Hunan Province (21YBQ074).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resources and Environment, Hunan University of Technology and Business, ChangSha, 410205, Hunan, China

    Yiwen Liu

  2. Center for Comparative Studies of Modernization in China and Foreign Countries, Chinese-Style Modernization Research Institute, Hunan University of Technology and Business, ChangSha, 410205, Hunan, China

    Yiwen Liu & Liang Yuan

  3. International Business School, Hunan University of Technology and Business, ChangSha, 410205, Hunan, China

    Liang Yuan

Authors
  1. Yiwen Liu
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  2. Liang Yuan
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Contributions

Yiwen Liu: conceptualization, formal analysis, writing—original draft, visualization, project administration. Liang Yuan: methodology, software, data curation, validation, resources, investigation, writing—review and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Liang Yuan.

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Liu, Y., Yuan, L. Study on the influencing factors and profitability of horizontal ecological compensation mechanism in Yellow River Basin of China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 87353–87367 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28243-z

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