The impact of eco-compensation policies on the ecological product value realization rate in compensated areas

Abstract

Abstract The realization of ecological product value serves as a vital link between socioeconomic development and environmental resources. A high ecological product value realization rate effectively captures the synergy between economic growth and ecological conservation, ultimately promoting ecological sustainability. Nonetheless, few studies have systematically estimated the ecological product value realization rate, analyzed its evolutionary patterns, and assessed the impact of eco-policies on it from a policy evaluation perspective. To bridge this gap, this paper estimates the ecological product value realization rate for 37 cities from 2004 to 2023. It includes both the compensated area under the Xin’an River Basin eco-compensation policies and its surrounding cities. Based on this panel dataset, a difference-in-differences model and a synthetic control model are constructed to explore the impact of these eco-policies on the ecological product value realization rate. It is observed that the ecological product value realization rate has improved across all cities, with an average value of 0.5952, and is particularly high in cities northeast of Huangshan. Moreover, the results demonstrate that eco-compensation policies exert significant and long-term positive effects on the ecological product value realization rate, contributing to an increase of approximately 6.06%. This effect is primarily attributed to mechanisms such as industrial structure change and green technology development. Robustness tests confirm the reliability of these results. These conclusions offer empirical evidence to assist administrations in designing equitable ecological benefit-sharing mechanisms that effectively integrate eco-compensation policies with ecological product value realization.