Economic effects analysis of environmental regulation policy in the process of industrial structure upgrading: Evidence from Chinese provincial panel data

Do corporate social responsibility practices contribute to green innovation? The mediating role of green dynamic capability

In the era of information economy, the integration of the internet and traditional industries is pushing the rapid transformation of the world economy in a more innovative, smarter, and greener direction. Based on the panel data for 30 Chinese provinces for the 2006–2017 period, the level of China’s internet development is comprehensively evaluated using the full array polygon graphic index method. The spatial Durbin model and threshold model are used to empirically analyze the impact of internet development on environmental quality. The results indicate that China’s environmental pollution has a significant spatial spillover effect. Internet development can not only significantly reduce local environmental pollution, but also environmental pollution in neighboring areas. The regression results of the mediation effect indicate that internet development mainly affects environmental pollution by improving technological innovation, industrial upgrading, human capital and financial development. Finally, policy suggestions are proposed from the aspects of strengthening collaborative environmental governance and increasing internet infrastructure investment.

Digitalization and environment governance: does internet development reduce environmental pollution?

It is important for China’s green innovation productivity and sustainable development to study the effect of heterogeneous environmental regulation on microenterprise innovation activities. Based on the panel data of high-tech enterprises in China from 2012 to 2017, the article studies the incentive effect of heterogeneous environmental regulation on technological innovation and the mediation of innovation input and explores whether different types of environmental regulations have interactive effects on enterprise innovation. The results reveal that compared with the command-controlled environmental regulation, the incentive effect of market-incentive environmental regulation and voluntary environmental regulation on enterprise innovation is more significant, where the innovation input fully plays its role as a mediating effect. Further research finds that there is an interactive effect between command-controlled environmental regulation and other two regulatory tools, but no interactive effect between market-incentive environmental regulation and voluntary environmental regulation, which shows that the control-based regulatory tools and more flexible regulatory tools have a complementary effect on enterprise innovation. Through revealing the internal mechanism of environmental regulation on enterprise innovation, the article displays the process of technological innovation, and it also finds that flexible regulation tools and the combination of rigid and flexible tools are more conducive to encourage enterprises to carry out innovation activities.

The impact of heterogeneous environmental regulation on innovation of high-tech enterprises in China: mediating and interaction effect

Does green financial policy affect debt-financing cost of heavy-polluting enterprises? An empirical evidence based on Chinese pilot zones for green finance reform and innovations

In 2017, the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the concept of high-quality economic development, indicating that the Chinese economy has shifted from rapid growth to high-quality development. High-quality economic development is the growth mode of an innovation-driven economy, an innovative, high-efficiency, energy-saving, environmentally friendly, and high-value-added growth mode. Environmental regulation is an important means to solve economic development and environmental pollution and plays an important role in high-quality economic development. In order to explore the impact of China's environmental regulations on the high-quality economic development, this paper based on the panel data of 30 provinces (cities) in China from 2004 to 2015 uses the dynamic spatial Dubin model (DSDM) to analyze the direct and indirect effects of China's environmental regulations on high-quality economic development and regional heterogeneity. It also incorporates R&D (Research and Development) investment, government investment in environmental governance, and fiscal decentralization into the model and analyzes the direct and indirect effects of the above three factors in the process of environmental regulation affecting high-quality economic development. We found that China's high-quality economic development is spatially related between different provinces. And environmental regulations have obvious direct and indirect effects in the impact of high-quality economic development in the central and eastern regions, and this effect phenomenon is not significant in the western region. R&D investment, environmental protection investment, and fiscal decentralization have different adjustment effects on environmental regulation and high-quality economic development, and the same kind of adjustment variable also shows obvious heterogeneity among different regions. Finally, we put forward relevant policy recommendations based on the conclusions, with a view to improving China's high-quality economic development.

Effect of Environmental Regulation on High-quality Economic Development in China-An Empirical Analysis Based on Dynamic Spatial Durbin Model.

In recent years, the global emphasis on environmental protection issues has gradually increased. The existing literature has been divided on whether environmental regulation promotes or inhibits industrial development. Can the innovation-driven strategy proposed by China achieve a win-win situation for both? This paper attempts to investigate the technology innovation of China’s three major economic zones in dual environmental regulation effect on industrial structure upgrade. The research was conducted based on Intermediary Effect Model and employing the technique of Image Analysis, panel data of 30 Chinese provincial from in 2005 to 2017 were selected and analyzed. The results demonstrate that the direct effect of formal environmental regulations (ER) on industrial upgrading is an inverted “U” shape, and it is positively affecting industrial upgrading through technological innovation strategies. However, the mediating role of technological innovation under the informal environmental regulation (IER) is negative. The effect of the innovation-driven strategy has regional heterogeneity, and marketization is conducive to industrial upgrading, but increasing dependence on foreign trade is not conducive to industrial upgrading. The research above politically suggests that China should further strengthen formal and informal environmental regulations, the informal environmental regulation system should be improved, and feedback mechanisms such as laws should be established. Meanwhile, the government should carry out innovation-driven strategies based on local conditions, improve the innovation mechanism, and enhance the diffusion of technological innovation.

Is technological innovation the effective way to achieve the “double dividend” of environmental protection and industrial upgrading?

In recent years, environmental protection issues have come under the spotlight. This paper constructs a corporate environmental responsibility evaluation index and examines the impact of environmental responsibility performance on financial performance in China based on the information of A-share listed companies disclosed in the "Company Annual Report" and "Social Responsibility Report" from 2008 to 2017. The empirical results show that: (1) without considering the quality of environmental information, fulfilling environmental responsibility can significantly improve the corporate financial performance; (2) after incorporating the quality of environmental responsibility performance and classifying corporations into subgroups by region and attribute, the fulfillment of environmental responsibility has a significant positive impact on the corporate financial performance in the sample of eastern region and non-state-holding companies, with a lag effect, while it has a negative impact in the sample of central region. The research above politically suggests that the Chinese government should establish a long-term management mechanism to encourage companies to fulfill their environmental responsibilities, improve the evaluation system of corporate environmental responsibility performance quality, as well as provide matching financial support or other compensation, thereby realize the sound and sustainable development of companies and the society.

Gege Wang

Papers

Effect of Environmental Regulation on High-quality Economic Development in China-An Empirical Analysis Based on Dynamic Spatial Durbin Model.

Is technological innovation the effective way to achieve the “double dividend” of environmental protection and industrial upgrading?

The impact of corporate environmental responsibility on financial performance—based on Chinese listed companies