Abstract: The benign interaction between industrial structure upgrading and ecological environment optimization is crucial to promote the transformation of China's economy from high-speed growth stage to high-quality development stage. Based on the panel data of environmental regulation, industrial structure and ecological environment in 30 provinces of China from 2003 to 2016, this paper applies the three-stage least squares method to empirically test the interaction mechanism between environmental regulation intensity, industrial structure upgrading and ecological environment optimization. The study found that at the national level, the upgrading of industrial structure has weakened the intensity of environmental regulation while promoting the optimization of ecological environment; environmental regulation has a "forced-down" mechanism, which can promote the optimization of ecological structure while promoting the upgrading of China's industrial structure; In terms of regions, the upgrading of industrial structure is conducive to the optimization of regional ecological environment. However, due to the heterogeneity factors such as resource sharing, the interaction mechanism between environmental regulation intensity, industrial structure upgrading and ecological environment optimization is different. It is a feasible path to realize the upgrading of industrial structure and the optimization of ecological environment by exerting the functional role of environmental regulation, implementing the innovation-driven development strategy, and promoting regional coordinated development.

Key words: environmental regulation, industrial upgrading, ecological environment, three stage least squares