The Impact of Higher Education Efficiency on Green Innovation: Evidence from China

Under the context of green development, green innovation serves as an important bridge to promote regional environmental and economic growth. Higher education efficiency, as a dynamic indicator of input and output with multiple factors, can enhance the level of green innovation development. Using panel data from 31 provinces in the period of 2007-2020 as the sample, a spatial econometric model is constructed, incorporating a geographical economic weight matrix, and further establishing a spatial panel error model (SEM) to examine the influence of higher education efficiency on green innovation. Empirical results indicate that regional higher education efficiency promotes the research and development of green innovation; however, it does not simultaneously facilitate the development of practical utility patents and design patents in the green field. Higher education efficiency primarily enhances the research and development of green innovation in the secondary and tertiary industries. Additionally, green innovation is also influenced by unobservable factors in neighboring regions. To ensure the accuracy of the results, a series of robustness tests are conducted, affirming the validity of the findings. Group tests reveal that the impact of higher education efficiency on green innovation is more pronounced in southern provinces compared to those in the northern provinces. This study enriches and expands the existing research on green innovation, providing new pathways and crucial empirical evidence for promoting its development.