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Do female officials promote local eco-innovation? The moderating role of public pressure

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Abstract

Based on upper echelons theory, feminist caring theory, and social role theory, we analyzed the intrinsic relationship between female officials and local eco-innovation and the moderating role of public pressure. A panel data set of 281 cities in China from 2003 to 2017 was selected as the research sample. The results showed that female municipal secretaries had a positive effect on incremental eco-innovation; female mayors had a positive effect on both radical and incremental eco-innovation; and the impact of female officials on eco-innovation varied across regions. Based on these findings, we propose that local governments should strengthen the evaluation system for officials, increase the participation rate of female officials in politics, and broaden the path of environmental monitoring for the general public.

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Funding

The authors received financial support from Zhejiang Provincial Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project (21NDQN230YB), MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Foundation (22YJAZH089), and the National Natural Science foundation of China (72274177).

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  1. School of Economics and Management, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, 310018, China

    Chen Shen & Zhongju Liao

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  1. Chen Shen
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Chen Shen: conceptualization, methodology, data curation, formal analysis, writing—original draft; Zhongju Liao: methodology, conceptualization, writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Zhongju Liao.

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Shen, C., Liao, Z. Do female officials promote local eco-innovation? The moderating role of public pressure. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 37997–38013 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24892-8

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