Can government environmental auditing improve static and dynamic ecological efficiency in China?

As an important part of external supervision, government environmental auditing plays a significant role in the construction of ecological civilization. With the execution of environmental audit events by the National Audit Office of China (CNAO) during 2008 to 2018, we examine the impact of government environmental auditing on ecological efficiency by using multiple regression method and PSM method. Our analyses show that government environmental auditing can obviously improve both static and dynamic ecological efficiency. Further research suggests that (1) government environmental auditing has a short-term improvement effect on ecological efficiency but nothing in the long run. (2) Government environmental auditing plays a supervisory and warning role in improving ecological efficiency. Those findings provide empirical evidence for the effects of government environmental auditing on ecological efficiency. The current study has some theoretical and practical implications for the government in terms of strengthening the external supervision of environmental protection and improving the ecological efficiency.