Regional eco-innovation in China: An analysis of eco-innovation levels and influencing factors

Eco-innovation has become a core engine for long-term stable economic development, as well as a fundamental way to ease the tension between economic growth and environmental resources management. Through the construction of a measurement index system, this paper evaluates the level of regional eco-innovation in 30 Chinese provinces from 2000 to 2014. This paper also employs panel data analysis to study the factors that influence Chinese regional eco-innovation. The results show that, during the observation period, the levels of eco-innovation increased significantly overall. However, the regional comparison of the eco-innovation index revealed an obvious, gradually decreasing distribution pattern from east to west. Factors such as technology push, market pull, and environmental regulation pull have positive but differentiated influences on the eco-innovation throughout China and among the eastern, central and western regions. Based on these heterogeneous influences and the targets of ecological civilization construction, promoting the regional synergy of technology push, market pull, and environmental regulation pull is necessary to improve the level of eco-innovation in China.