Does Environmental Governance Promote the Promotion of Local Officials?——An Empirical Study Based on Samples of Prefecture-Level Cities in China

This paper uses the promotion data of officials from 2007 to 2016 to match the panel data of 276 prefecture-level cities to empirically investigate the impact of environmental governance on the promotion of officials. Research findings: Environmental governance promoted the promotion of officials, environmental performance assessment and economic performance assessment coexist, and environmental performance was strengthened, while economic performance was weakened. From the regional point of view, the northern region emphasizes the promotion through economic growth, while the southern region emphasizes the promotion through environmental governance;official in key environmental protection cities are more likely to be promoted through environmental governance than those in non-key environmental protection cities. From the characteristics of officials, the longer the tenure of officials, the greater the impact of environmental governance on the promotion of officials;using thermal inversion as a tool variable and after a variety of robust tests, the conclusions were still established. The policy implication of this paper is: Policymakers should strengthen the importance of green development concept and environmental performance assessment, adjust the proportion of performance assessment, establish the official governance system according to local conditions, and built the governance system by combining formal and informal systems, so as to stimulate the endogenous power of environmental governance of officials and achieve green and high-quality development.