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Does Environmental Regulation Promote Industrial Green Technology Progress? Empirical Evidence from China with a Heterogeneity Analysis

Author

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  • Yanli Ji

    (School of Mathematics and Statistics, Changshu Institute of Technology, Changshu 215500, China)

  • Jie Xue

    (School of Economics, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China)

  • Kaiyang Zhong

    (School of Economic Information Engineering, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 611130, China)

Abstract

The complex relationship between environmental regulation and green technology progress has always been a hot topic of research, especially in developing countries, where the impact of environmental regulation is important. Current research is mainly concerned with the impact of the single environmental regulation on technological progress and lacks study on the diversity of environmental regulations. The main purpose of this paper is to examine the heterogeneity of the effects of different types of environmental regulation on industrial green technology progress. As China’s scale of economy and pollution emissions are both large, and the government has also made great efforts in environmental regulation, this paper takes China as the example for analyses. We first use the EBM-GML method to measure the industrial green technology progress of 30 provinces in China from 2000 to 2018, and then apply the panel econometric model and threshold model to empirically investigate the influence of 3 types of environmental regulation. The results show that, first, the impacts of environmental regulation on industrial green technology progress are significantly different; specifically, command-based regulation has no direct significant impact, and autonomous regulation has played a positive role, and market-based regulation’s quadratic curve effect is significant, in which the cost-based and investment-based tool presents an inverted U-sharped and U-sharped, respectively. Second, there may be a weak alternative interaction among different types of environmental regulation. Third, a market-based regulatory tool has a threshold effect; with the upgrading of environmental regulation compliance, the effect of a cost-based tool is characterized by “promotion inhibition”, and that of an investment-based tool is “inhibition promotion”. Finally, the results of regional analysis are basically consistent with those of the national analysis. Based on the study, policy enlightenment is put forward to improve regional industrial green technology progress from the perspective of environmental regulation. This paper can provide a useful analytical framework for studying the relationship between environmental regulation and technological progress in a country, especially in developing countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Yanli Ji & Jie Xue & Kaiyang Zhong, 2022. "Does Environmental Regulation Promote Industrial Green Technology Progress? Empirical Evidence from China with a Heterogeneity Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-23, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:1:p:484-:d:716367
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    3. Haoyang Lu & Alistair Hunt & Bruce Morley, 2024. "The Impact of Heterogeneous Environmental Regulation Tools on Economic Growth: Can Environmental Protection and Economic Growth Be Win-Win?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-20, June.
    4. Guoqun Ma & Minjuan Li & Yuxi Luo & Tuanbiao Jiang, 2023. "Agri-Ecological Policy, Human Capital and Agricultural Green Technology Progress," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-14, April.
    5. Mei Feng & Chu Chen & Jia Liu & Wei Jia, 2022. "Does Central Environmental Protection Inspector Improve Corporate Social Responsibility? Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-22, November.
    6. Ying Ying & Shanyue Jin, 2024. "Impact of Environmental Regulation on Corporate Green Technological Innovation: The Moderating Role of Corporate Governance and Environmental Information Disclosure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-17, April.
    7. Yushi Zhang & Tianhang Jiang & Jun Sun & Zitian Fu & Yanfeng Yu, 2022. "Sustainable Development of Urbanization: From the Perspective of Social Security and Social Attitude for Migration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-15, August.

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