What inhibits regional inclusive green growth? Empirical evidence from China

The diversity of locations, environment, and resource elements among different regions leads to the regional imbalance of inclusive green growth (IGG), especially in those developing countries like China. A core issue for achieving the coordination of regional IGG is to identify what influence factors with what extent to inhibit IGG levels of different regions. In this paper, a comprehensive IGG indicator system is designed based on the IGG connotation from four dimensions of economic development, social opportunity equity, green production and consumption, and ecological environment protection. An improved TODIM method is proposed to measure the regional IGG level and further reveal the inhibition effects of various influence factors on regional IGG. The results exemplified by China's 30 provinces during 2008-2018 show that China's eastern provinces possess more superior IGG levels, while the catch-up effect of IGG in central and western provinces is significant. The lower economic output, larger income gap, and weaker green production and consumption restrict the IGG of most western provinces. The higher economic and population agglomerations in eastern and central provinces challenge the ecological resource endowment and environment governance, which inhibits their IGG development. The inhibition effects of social opportunity equity involving employment, education, medical treatment, social security, and infrastructure on IGG levels do not reflect obvious regional agglomeration.