IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i21p14369-d961576.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Stronger Protection of Intellectual Property Improve Sustainable Development? Evidence from City Data in China

Author

Listed:
  • Ke Mao

    (Business School, Hunan Institute of Technology, Hengyang 421002, China
    Business School, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411105, China)

  • Pierre Failler

    (Economics and Finance Group, Portsmouth Business School, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO1 3DE, UK)

Abstract

Achieving sustainable development goals is a challenge for countries. The core way is to enhance the green total factor productivity. While the literature has examined the various external institutional factors, there is a lack of research on the impact of intellectual property protection (IPP), which is an important external institution. This study adopts the differences-in-differences (DID) model and propensity scores matching (PSM) using the Chinese intellectual property model city policy (IPMP), as a quasi-natural experiment, and Chinese cities’ panel data from 2005 to 2019 to investigate the effect of IPP on sustainable development. The findings demonstrate that: (1) The IPMP significantly increases urban GTFP. (2) Mediation mechanism analyses show that the IPMP can support urban GTFP by fostering technological advancement, boosting human capital, luring foreign direct investment, and modernizing industrial structure. (3) Heterogeneity analysis shows that the Chinese central region, the eastern region, and the region with more fiscal transparency are where the IPMP has the greatest promotion effect on GTFP. Lastly, this study provides several recommendations for the improvement of sustainability in China.

Suggested Citation

  • Ke Mao & Pierre Failler, 2022. "Does Stronger Protection of Intellectual Property Improve Sustainable Development? Evidence from City Data in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-15, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:21:p:14369-:d:961576
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/21/14369/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/21/14369/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Feng, Chao & Huang, Jian-Bai & Wang, Miao, 2018. "Analysis of green total-factor productivity in China's regional metal industry: A meta-frontier approach," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 219-229.
    2. Cai, Xiqian & Lu, Yi & Wu, Mingqin & Yu, Linhui, 2016. "Does environmental regulation drive away inbound foreign direct investment? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 73-85.
    3. Zahoor Ahmed & Muhammad Mansoor Asghar & Muhammad Nasir Malik & Kishwar Nawaz, 2020. "Moving towards a sustainable environment: The dynamic linkage between natural resources, human capital, urbanization, economic growth, and ecological footprint in China," Post-Print hal-03557938, HAL.
    4. James S. Ang & Yingmei Cheng & Chaopeng Wu, 2014. "Does Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Matter in China? Evidence from Financing and Investment Choices in the High-Tech Industry," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(2), pages 332-348, May.
    5. Titus O. Awokuse & Weishi Grace Gu, 2015. "Does Foreign Intellectual Property Rights Protection Affect Us Exports And Fdi?," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(3), pages 256-264, July.
    6. Daron Acemoglu & Camilo García-Jimeno & James A. Robinson, 2015. "State Capacity and Economic Development: A Network Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(8), pages 2364-2409, August.
    7. Neves, Pedro Cunha & Afonso, Oscar & Silva, Diana & Sochirca, Elena, 2021. "The link between intellectual property rights, innovation, and growth: A meta-analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 196-209.
    8. Shuai Wang & Cunyi Yang & Zhenghui Li, 2022. "Green Total Factor Productivity Growth: Policy-Guided or Market-Driven?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-19, August.
    9. Papageorgiadis, Nikolaos & McDonald, Frank & Wang, Chengang & Konara, Palitha, 2020. "The characteristics of intellectual property rights regimes: How formal and informal institutions affect outward FDI location," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(1).
    10. Lin, Chen & Lin, Ping & Zou, Hong, 2012. "Does property rights protection affect corporate risk management strategy? Intra- and cross-country evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 311-330.
    11. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Yuan, Yan & Li, Aijun & Wang, Daoping, 2017. "Methodological comparison among radial, non-radial and intermediate approaches for DEA environmental assessment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 439-453.
    12. Thakur–Wernz, Pooja & Wernz, Christian, 2022. "Impact of stronger intellectual property rights regime on innovation: Evidence from de alio versus de novo Indian bio-pharmaceutical firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 457-473.
    13. Walter G. Park & Juan Carlos Ginarte, 1997. "Intellectual Property Rights And Economic Growth," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 15(3), pages 51-61, July.
    14. He, Yu & Zhu, Xiaobo & Zheng, Huan, 2022. "The influence of environmental protection tax law on total factor productivity: Evidence from listed firms in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    15. Du, Kerui & Cheng, Yuanyuan & Yao, Xin, 2021. "Environmental regulation, green technology innovation, and industrial structure upgrading: The road to the green transformation of Chinese cities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    16. Ahmed, Zahoor & Asghar, Muhammad Mansoor & Malik, Muhammad Nasir & Nawaz, Kishwar, 2020. "Moving towards a sustainable environment: The dynamic linkage between natural resources, human capital, urbanization, economic growth, and ecological footprint in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    17. Zhang, Yijun & Li, Xiaoping & Song, Yi & Jiang, Feitao, 2021. "Can green industrial policy improve total factor productivity? Firm-level evidence from China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 51-62.
    18. Weixiang Zhao & Yankun Xu, 2022. "Public Expenditure and Green Total Factor Productivity: Evidence from Chinese Prefecture-Level Cities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-27, May.
    19. Hailu, Atakelty & Veeman, Terrence S., 2000. "Environmentally Sensitive Productivity Analysis of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Industry, 1959-1994: An Input Distance Function Approach," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 251-274, November.
    20. Alkemade, Floortje & Suurs, Roald A.A., 2012. "Patterns of expectations for emerging sustainable technologies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 79(3), pages 448-456.
    21. Li, Changsheng & Qi, Yaping & Liu, Shaohui & Wang, Xu, 2022. "Do carbon ETS pilots improve cities' green total factor productivity? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    22. Tao Kong & RenJi Sun & Guanglin Sun & Youtao Song, 2022. "Effects of Digital Finance on Green Innovation considering Information Asymmetry: An Empirical Study Based on Chinese Listed Firms," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(15), pages 4399-4411, December.
    23. Yanran Liu & Lei Tang & Guangfu Liu, 2022. "Carbon Dioxide Emissions Reduction through Technological Innovation: Empirical Evidence from Chinese Provinces," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-19, August.
    24. Lee Branstetter & Raymond Fisman & C. Fritz Foley & Kamal Saggi, 2007. "Intellectual Property Rights, Imitation, and Foreign Direct Investment: Theory and Evidence," NBER Working Papers 13033, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    25. Min Hong & Zhenghui Li & Benjamin Drakeford, 2021. "Do the Green Credit Guidelines Affect Corporate Green Technology Innovation? Empirical Research from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-21, February.
    26. Su, Zhongfeng & Wang, Chenfeng & Peng, Mike W., 2022. "Intellectual property rights protection and total factor productivity," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(3).
    27. Kadri Männasoo & Heili Hein & Raul Ruubel, 2018. "The contributions of human capital, R&D spending and convergence to total factor productivity growth," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(12), pages 1598-1611, December.
    28. Awokuse, Titus O. & Yin, Hong, 2010. "Intellectual property rights protection and the surge in FDI in China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 217-224, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ye Zhu & Minggui Sun, 2022. "The Enabling Effect of Intellectual Property Strategy on Total Factor Productivity of Enterprises: Evidence from China’s Intellectual Property Model Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-19, December.
    2. Wei Qiu & Yinghua Li & Haitao Wu, 2023. "The role of direct financing on regional green development: inhibition or promotion?," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 3665-3699, October.
    3. Guang Chen & Akira Hibiki, 2022. "Can the Carbon Emission Trading Scheme Influence Industrial Green Production in China?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-22, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Huiying Zhang & Yikang Liu, 2022. "Do Foreign Direct Investment and Migration Influence the Sustainable Development of Outward Foreign Direct Investment? From the Perspective of Intellectual Property Rights Protection," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-18, April.
    2. Jiekuan Zhang & Yan Zhang, 2023. "Examining the effects of economic growth pressure on green total factor productivity: evidence from China," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(6), pages 4309-4337, December.
    3. Yahui Chen & Changsheng Xu & Ming Yi, 2019. "Does the Belt and Road Initiative Reduce the R&D Investment of OFDI Enterprises? Evidence from China’s A-Share Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-14, March.
    4. Lee, Minsoo & Alba, Joseph D. & Park, Donghyun, 2018. "Intellectual property rights, informal economy, and FDI into developing countries," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 1067-1081.
    5. Changfei Nie & Wen Luo & Yuan Feng & Zhi Chen, 2023. "The Impact of Economic Growth Target Constraints on Environmental Pollution: Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-23, February.
    6. Hu, Hui & Qi, Shaozhou & Chen, Yuanzhi, 2023. "Using green technology for a better tomorrow: How enterprises and government utilize the carbon trading system and incentive policies," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    7. Emrah Kocak & Hayriye Hilal Baglitas, 2022. "The path to sustainable municipal solid waste management: Do human development, energy efficiency, and income inequality matter?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 1947-1962, December.
    8. Sun, Yunpeng & Tian, Wenjuan & Mehmood, Usman & Zhang, Xiaoyu & Tariq, Salman, 2023. "How do natural resources, urbanization, and institutional quality meet with ecological footprints in the presence of income inequality and human capital in the next eleven countries?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    9. Miao, Yang & Razzaq, Asif & Adebayo, Tomiwa Sunday & Awosusi, Abraham Ayobamiji, 2022. "Do renewable energy consumption and financial globalisation contribute to ecological sustainability in newly industrialized countries?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 688-697.
    10. Yung-Jaan Lee, 2022. "Hybrid Ecological Footprint of Taipei," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-16, April.
    11. Xing Zhao & Yifan Guo & Zhen Liu & Anteng Xiu, 2023. "Boosting green recovery: the impact of green fiscal policy on green total factor productivity," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 2601-2619, August.
    12. Riza Radmehr & Samira Shayanmehr & Ernest Baba Ali & Elvis Kwame Ofori & Elżbieta Jasińska & Michał Jasiński, 2022. "Exploring the Nexus of Renewable Energy, Ecological Footprint, and Economic Growth through Globalization and Human Capital in G7 Economics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-19, September.
    13. Wang, Shuhong & Tian, Wenqian & Lu, Binbin, 2023. "Impact of capital investment and industrial structure optimization from the perspective of "resource curse": Evidence from developing countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    14. Aladejare, Samson Adeniyi, 2022. "Natural resource rents, globalisation and environmental degradation: New insight from 5 richest African economies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    15. Danai Christopoulou & Nikolaos Papageorgiadis & Chengang Wang & Georgios Magkonis, 2021. "IPR Law Protection and Enforcement and the Effect on Horizontal Productivity Spillovers from Inward FDI to Domestic Firms: A Meta-analysis," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 235-266, April.
    16. Malayaranjan Sahoo & Narayan Sethi, 2022. "The dynamic impact of urbanization, structural transformation, and technological innovation on ecological footprint and PM2.5: evidence from newly industrialized countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 4244-4277, March.
    17. Zhu, Junpeng & Lin, Boqiang, 2022. "Resource dependence, market-oriented reform, and industrial transformation: Empirical evidence from Chinese cities," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    18. Yugang He, 2022. "Renewable and Non-Renewable Energy Consumption and Trade Policy: Do They Matter for Environmental Sustainability?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-17, May.
    19. Wei, Shuxin & Wei, Wenshan & Umut, Alican, 2023. "Do renewable energy consumption, technological innovation, and international integration enhance environmental sustainability in Brazil?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 172-183.
    20. Liu, Haiying & Saleem, Muhammad Mansoor & Al-Faryan, Mamdouh Abdulaziz Saleh & Khan, Irfan & Zafar, Muhammad Wasif, 2022. "Impact of governance and globalization on natural resources volatility: The role of financial development in the Middle East North Africa countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:21:p:14369-:d:961576. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.