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Compared to regions with lighter pollution, the areas heavily affected by pollution in China face more severe environmental problems due to rapid economic growth, which creates a greater urgency for government and corporate environmental requirements. This study innovatively applies mediation and threshold models to explore the potential correlation between green technology innovation, types of environmental regulation, and provincial-level green total factor productivity (GTFP). Additionally, it examines inter-regional differences, determines threshold effects, and introduces regional heterogeneity and mediator variables. The research findings demonstrate that progress in green technology innovation significantly impacts the improvement of provincial-level GTFP. Further mechanism analysis reveals the crucial role of environmental regulation in facilitating sustained enhancement of GTFP through green technology innovation. The promotion of GTFP is more pronounced in eastern and central provinces compared to western regions, and the positive influence of green technology innovation varies significantly among provinces. By investigating the regional differences of polluted areas and introducing mediating variables, this paper explores the environmental regulation mechanism, which has important guiding significance for formulating more effective environmental regulation policies, promoting green technology innovation, and improving GTFP.
Sun et al. (Sun,) studied this question.