Environmental Regulation,Technological Innovation and Green Total Factor Productivity of Industrial Enterprises:An Analysis Based on Chinese Interprovincial Panel Data
China has achieved rapid economic growth through a crude development model,but it has also given rise to many serious environmental problems.How to reduce energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions on the premise of maintaining stable economic growth remains a major practical problem that needs to be solved urgently.Indus-try is China's major energy-consuming sectors,but also the most serious environmental pollution,the need to accelerate the industrial enterprises from high emissions,high pollution,high energy consumption to low emissions,low pollution,low energy consumption transition.Therefore,strengthening environmental regulation to improve the green total factor productivity of industrial enterprises has become an important way for China's economic transformation.Scholars have formed two diametrically opposed views on the effects of environmental regulation.Supporters of the"Green New Deal"believe that well-designed environmental regulations can reduce energy consumption while promoting economic growth,thus realizing the green transformation of economic development.Contrary to this view,scholars argue that environmental regulations add additional tax,regulatory and administrative costs,raise production costs for firms,and lead to a decline in firms'ability to compete in the marketplace.In view of this,further discussion of this issue will help governments to clari-fy the mechanism of environmental regulation so as to define the next policy focus,which is of great practical signifi-cance in realizing a win-win situation for both environmental protection and economic growth.Based on Porter's hypothesis,the"environmental cost effect"and the"survival of the fittest effect",the relationship between environmental regulation,technological innovation and green total factor productivity of industrial enterprises is discussed at the theoretical level,and the corresponding research hypotheses are put forward.On this basis,the panel data of provincial industrial enterprises are used to verify the direct impact of command-type and market-type environmental regulations on the green total factor productivity of industrial enterprises,and to test the mediating effect of technological innovation;the panel threshold effect model is used to explore the nonlinear dynamic impact of environmental regulations on the green total factor productivity of industrial enterprises.The empirical results show that,firstly,there is a U-shaped relationship between command-type environmental regulation and market-type environmental regulation and green TFP of industrial enterprises,and when the intensity of environmental regulation does not reach the inflection point of the U-shaped curve,the increase of environmental regulation intensity is not favorable to the growth of green TFP,and when the inflection point is crossed,with the increase of environmental regulation intensity,the green TFP increases.Second,when the intensity of environmental regulation is low,technological innovation has a masking effect between environmen-tal regulation and green TFP,and when the intensity of environmental regulation is high,technological innovation has a mediating effect between environmental regulation and green TFP.Third,the impact of environmental regulation on green TFP is limited by the level of technological innovation of enterprises,only when the level of technological innovation of enterprises breaks through the minimum threshold value,environmental regulation can promote the enhancement of green TFP.When the technological innovation level of enterprises is high,increasing the intensity of environmental regulation can effectively stimulate the enthusiasm of enterprise R&D and innovation,and promote enterprises to develop more envi-ronmentally friendly products or production technology,thus bringing about the improvement of green TFP.The conclusions of the study have the following insights:first,continue to adhere to the policy orientation of environ-mental regulation,formulate and implement different types of environmental policies with complementary roles according to the specific realities of different regions and industries,so as to achieve a balance between economic goals and emis-sion reduction goals with higher efficiency and lower costs.Second,through market incentives and policy guidance,vigorously enhance the technological innovation capacity of enterprises.According to the empirical results,it can be seen that the promotion effect of environmental regulation on enterprises'green TFP is closely related to their technological in-novation ability.Industrial enterprises are faced with the short-term risk of technological innovation and the problem of long-term interests of the crop,the empirical results help industrial enterprises to combine their own resources to set the appropriate intensity of R & D investment,to avoid the resource crowding out effect of technological innovation.Third,change the evaluation standard of the effectiveness of environmental regulation and highlight the importance of green total factor productivity.Fourth,adjust the structure of foreign trade,optimize structural elements,and improve the position of Chinese enterprises in the global value chain.
environmental regulationgreen TFPtechnological innovationpanel threshold model
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