Does Social Trust Stimulate Regional Eco-Efficiency? Evidence From China

Ecological efficiency is an important part of economic sustainable development. As the transitional economy with “weak institution” features, informal institutions have a vital role in China’s Using panel data from 2001 to 2016, this paper estimates eco-efficiency 30 provinces based on Super-SBM DEA global Malmquist index and investigates governance typical institution, namely social trust, regional eco-efficiency. Empirical results show following: 1) From accumulated changes are all greater than 1, indicating that China actively changing its development mode improve 2) Social trust plays significantly positive improving 3) Moreover, effect more pronounced regions poor legal 4) The mechanism tests further can through promoting green innovation developing finance. Our findings shed light implications institutions, particular value realizing emerging market.