LAUSR

Abstract As the capital economic circle, Jing-Jin-Ji faces a serious shortage of land resource and a deterioration of the ecological environment owing to economic development. Alleviating ecological pressure has become a focus issue in the region. Extant studies have mainly focused on the ecological carrying capacity of individual regions, while it is lacking for the research on the ecological dependency relationship between the various regions. In this article, the authors analyze the ecological footprint transfer between Jing-Jin-Ji and China's other provinces by using multi-regional input–output method. According to the results, the metal/non-metallic mineral and agriculture industries in Jing-Jin-Ji exported a large amount of ecological footprint to the eastern coastal areas. However, the ecological footprint outflow of Jing-Jin-Ji can be attributed to Hebei province, with Beijing and Tianjin showing some net inflow. In interior Jing-Jin-Ji, Hebei has transferred large ecological footprint to Beijing and Tianjin, but Hebei has not achieved the equivalent economic benefits. Thus, Jing-Jin-Ji should further increase its dependence on ecological resources in other provinces; Hebei should especially reduce metal and agriculture product exports. Meanwhile, an ecological compensation system should be established to use the funds provided by Beijing and Tianjin to support the transformation of economic growth mode in Hebei.