The Impact of Human Capital on Green Economic Efficiency: Evidence from 280 Prefectural Cities in China

Abstract Balancing the relationship between economic growth and resources and the environment is the key to China's green development. Human capital is considered to be the supporting condition for promoting green development. In recent years, the state has attached great importance to talent cultivation, and major cities have actively introduced relevant policies for talent in various fields. However, there is a lack of relevant studies on whether and how the human capital can impact green economic efficiency (GEE) at the city level. In this paper, we examine the impact of human capital on GEE in each prefecture-level city and test the mechanism of action based on the super-efficient SBM model to calculate GEE, including non-desired output using panel data of 280 prefecture-level cities in China from 2003 to 2019. The results of the baseline regression study show that the improvement of human capital level contributes to the GEE of prefecture-level cities. Among the control variables, economic development level, foreign direct investment, city size and science and technology innovation level positively affect GEE, while industrialization and environmental regulation negatively affect GEE. The mechanism of action study results indicate that industrial structure upgrading plays a positive moderating role. That is, industrial structure upgrading can strengthen the effect of human capital on GEE, which is further clarified.