Abstract
Given China’ rapid transformation, its economy is currently experiencing a change from a rugged development style to a sustainable development style with green development being critical to this transformation. Increasing green total factor productivity (GTFP) is now considered one of the significant signs of economic growth. With increasingly stricter environmental laws and regulations and a broad application of innovation capability (ICY) in modern life, this research investigates the impact mechanisms of both environmental regulations (ER) and ICY on GTFP, offering robust empirical results from panel data of 30 provinces in China covering the period 2006–2017. The results indicate that both ICY and ER effectively promote GTFP, but compared to ER, ICY has a heterogeneous effect on GTFP. Moreover, ICY plays a mediating role in ER and GTFP, while ER promotes GTFP through ICY. Accordingly, the paper puts forward some suggestions, such as to optimize and improve the ER policy, enact an innovation-driven development strategy, widely use ICY technology, and strengthen monitoring and supervision.
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Data are available from the authors upon request.
Notes
Because GTFP is calculated using GML starting from 2006, the 2006–2017 data are selected for empirical calculation. Environmental indicators are available until 2017. The complete innovation index data are counted from 2006.
Abbreviations
- GTFP :
-
Green total factor productivity
- TFP :
-
Total factor productivity
- ICY:
-
Innovation capability
- ER:
-
Environmental regulation
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Chien-Chiang Lee is grateful to the Social Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province of China for financial support through Grant No: 21JL02.
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Three authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis, and manuscript. Chien-Chiang Lee is responsible for conceptualization and writing of the original draft; Mingli Zeng is responsible for the paper’s visualization, investigation, and writing of the original draft; and Changsong Wang is responsible for the overall investigation and formal analysis and writing of the original draft.
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Lee, CC., Zeng, M. & Wang, C. Environmental regulation, innovation capability, and green total factor productivity: New evidence from China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 39384–39399 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-18388-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-18388-0