In order to explore the influence mechanism of public participation theory on “porter hypothesis”, this paper uses SE-SBM model to measure green total factor productivity(GTFP) of each province, which includes economy, resources, environment and society. And measure public participation from three levels: objective level, subjective level and result level. By using spatial econometric model and threshold effect model, this paper studies the mechanism of environmental regulation on GTFP from the perspective of public participation theory. The results showed that: ①Public participation has positive direct effect and spatial spillover effect on GTFP, and the theory of public participation in environmental protection has been verified；②At present, public participation and formal environmental regulation tools have not been able to cooperate and promote each other to achieve the goal of improving GTFP, that is, they have not played a positive interaction；③The degree of public participation is the boundary condition for the establishment of “porter hypothesis” of economic incentive environmental regulation；④The level of command-control environmental regulation has a threshold effect on public participation in environmental protection.