How local officials moderate the spatial impact of politically and economically driven environmental regulations on green economic efficiency?

• Constructed a three-dimensional analytical framework integrating political–economic drivers, local and neighboring spatial effects, and the moderating role of officials’ characteristics. • Systematically revealed the spatial heterogeneity of politically and economically driven environmental regulations on green economic efficiency (GEE) from a dual policy-driver perspective. • Decomposed the spatial effects of environmental regulation into local and neighboring effects, clarifying the mechanisms of regional diffusion and intergovernmental policy interaction. • Introduced the characteristics of local officials as moderating variables to identify their differentiated influence on the spatial impacts of politically and economically driven regulations. This study integrates policy instrument theory and political tournament theory to develop a comprehensive analytical framework. Using panel data from 30 Chinese provinces during 2005–2020, it employs a fixed-effects model, a spatial Durbin model, and a moderating-effect model to systematically examine the spatial impacts of politically driven and economically driven environmental regulations on green economic efficiency (GEE), while further exploring the moderating influence of local government officials’ characteristics.Empirical results show that politically driven environmental regulation exerts significant negative effects both locally and across neighboring regions, thereby constraining improvements in green economic efficiency. In contrast, economically driven regulation demonstrates significant positive spatial effects at both levels, promoting coordinated improvements in regional green economic performance. Further analysis indicates that the characteristics of local chief officials—specifically age, educational attainment, and tenure—exert significant moderating effects on these spatial relationships. Higher official age weakens the adverse effects of political regulation while reinforcing the positive effects of economic regulation; higher education levels mitigate the negative impact of political regulation and enhance the effectiveness of economic regulation; and longer tenure reduces the inhibitory effect of political regulation while amplifying the motivational impact of economic regulation.This study offers a novel theoretical perspective on how environmental regulations shape green economic efficiency through spatial and behavioral mechanisms. It also provides policy insights for strengthening local governments’ green governance capacities and promoting China’s high-quality green transformation.