Search

The effectiveness of carbon price in emissions trading schemes (ETS) is an important issue in China in the context of its ambitious climate change goals. This paper adopts a staggered difference-in-differences model to estimate whether China's ETS reduced CO2 emissions while maintaining economic growth even under low carbon prices. The results indicate that despite the low carbon prices, the ETS effectively reduced CO2 emissions without undermining the economy. Specifically, an increase of $1 in the carbon price reduced CO2 emissions by 1.69% and increased the per capita GDP by $286. The carbon price primarily achieved emission reduction and promoted economic development through channels, such as technological innovation, foreign direct investment, energy mix, and industrial structure. Carbon leakage to neighboring regions was not evident. Heterogeneity analysis showed that the environmental effects of the carbon price were more pronounced in regions with higher levels of economic development and CO2 emissions. Conversely, the economic effects of the carbon price were more pronounced in regions with lower levels of economic development and CO2 emissions. The carbon price achieved significant economic effects in regions that solely adopted the free allocation mode of emission allowances, while regions that used a combination of free allocation and auctioning experienced substantial emission reduction effects. Despite low carbon prices, China's ETS effectively reduced CO2 emissions without compromising economic growth. This finding provides new empirical evidence for the effectiveness of carbon price as well as decision support for the future promotion of ETS. Technological innovation, FDI, energy mix, and industrial structure are crucial channels through which the carbon price achieves emission reduction and promotes economic development. The absence of carbon leakage to neighboring regions suggests that ETS is an internally effective mechanism for emission control. Heterogeneity analysis showed that regional characteristics and allowance allocation modes can influence the effectiveness of carbon price, thus emphasizing the importance of targeted policy design and appropriate allocation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the influence mechanism of the marketization process and financial technology on corporate investment preference using panel data from 2013 to 2019 for China's A-share listed companies. The study finds that both the marketization process and FinTech can facilitate increased R&D innovation and foreign equity investment by companies but discourage investment in their fixed assets, and FinTech has a "U-shaped effect" on corporate R&D and innovation. At the same time, the marketization process and FinTech show different threshold effects on corporate investment preferences with government subsidies as the threshold variable. It is found that market-based processes in small-scale enterprises are better able to promote investment in innovative R&D by companies—the marketization process for large enterprises has a greater impact on outward equity investment in the heterogeneity analysis. From the perspective of the nature of property rights, it is found that the marketization process and FinTech have a greater impact on non-state enterprises. As a result, in an era of rapid FinTech development, this paper enriches the relevant research on the impact of the marketization process on corporate investment preferences, which has important practical significance for policy formulation and corporate future development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PM2.5 pollution seriously affects the environment, human health and socio-economic development, which has garnered wide-spread attention. Technological innovation plays a great role in PM2.5 concentration. Thus, better understanding of the influence of technological innovation on PM2.5 concentration is necessary. The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) was selected as the study area. This paper explored the spatial characteristic of PM2.5 concentration and technological innovation. Then, bivariate Moran's I was applied to analyzed the spatial correlation between technological innovation and PM2.5 concentration. The geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model was applied to explore the spatial heterogeneity of the influence of technological innovation on PM2.5 concentration, and geographical detector model was applied to reveal the interactive influence between technological innovation and other factors. The main conclusions were as follows. (1) No city's PM2.5 concentration fell below the standard which is considered harmless to human health. Cities in the northwest of the YRD had higher PM2.5 concentration. (2) Cities in the core region of the YRD had relatively higher technological innovation. (3) There existed negative spatial correlation between technological innovation and PM2.5 concentration, and three local spatial correlation types were found. (4) Technological innovation contributed to the decrease in PM2.5 concentration. The interactive influence between technological innovation and natural factors was generally greater than that between technological factors and socio-economic factors. Comparing to other socio-economic factors, technological innovation and foreign investment had greater interactive influence on PM2.5 concentration. Finally, some policy recommendations were drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of global response to climate crisis and environmental pollution, environmental regulation plays an increasingly important role in green technology innovation. This paper uses data from 280 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2019 to empirically answer the question whether environmental regulation can improve the level of urban green technology innovation. It is found that environmental regulation has a significant positive effect on green technology innovation. Under the heterogeneity of economic geographical region and resource-based city, environmental regulation has positive promoting effect on urban green technology innovation. Heterogeneity results also show that environmental regulation significantly promotes green technology innovation in central and resource-based cities, but does not significantly promote green technology innovation in eastern and western cities and non-resource-based cities. Further research shows that environmental regulation can promote the level of green technology innovation through the two transmission mechanisms of government technology input and foreign direct investment. For the Chinese local government which is implementing the policy of green economic transformation, the formulation of scientific regional environmental policy is beneficial to improve the level of green technology innovation, increase government technology input and optimize the foreign investment environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's economic development is characterized by openness, and trade and investment are important engines for promoting economic development. China's economy is now in a transitional period, during which excessive carbon emission reduction would inevitably hinder economic development. In this context, improving carbon emission efficiency is an effective way to achieve sustainable development. This paper deals with the relationships among foreign direct investment, technological innovation and carbon emission efficiency. Our research findings include the following. First, carbon efficiency shows regional differences. East China has the highest mean value of carbon emission efficiency, followed by central China and west China over the sample period. Second, FDI exerts both direct and indirect impacts on carbon emission efficiency through technological innovation, which confirms the intermediate effect of technological innovation. Finally, sub-sample analysis indicates that the impact of FDI and technological innovation on carbon emission efficiency show regional heterogeneity. According to these findings, we offer policy recommendations as follows. The government should stimulate independent innovation, promote technological progress in renewable energy and green energy, and attract environmentally friendly foreign investment to improve carbon emission efficiency and boost green development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to assess the dynamics of the innovation divide between China and the Triad, as well as to determine the factors that influence its evolution. The Triad consists of three economies traditionally dominating the world economy: the United States, the European Union, and Japan. The methodology involves the decomposition of the innovativeness of the economy into innovation capability, innovation position, and the relationship between them, which indicates the efficiency of the innovation system. The analysis of dynamic indexes and σ-convergence in all these components confirms that the global economy has been gradually losing clear polarization into innovation leaders, found among developed countries and innovation followers, which have traditionally been associated with developing nations. In addition to demonstrating fast improvement in the Summary Innovation Index of China towards the Triad, the paper has a clear contribution by showcasing China's improvement through the decomposed factors of the innovativeness of the economy. In comparison with the Triad, China has a proportionally higher innovation position and efficiency of the innovation system and a lower level of innovation capacity. This demonstrates its dependence on external sources of innovation and international technology transfer, e.g. through foreign direct investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper theoretically analyzes the direct impact of environmental regulation on carbon emissions and its indirect effects on carbon emissions through foreign direct investment (FDI), energy consumption, industrial structure, and technological innovation. Then, this paper constructs a spatial lag model to empirically test the dual effects of environmental regulation on carbon emissions based on the provincial panel data of 2003–2017 in China. The results show that the average Moran's I value of carbon emissions during 2003–2017 is 0.2506, passing the significance test at 1% level, and carbon emissions have spatial correlation characteristics. The direct impact of environmental regulation on carbon emissions is significant and positive. Environmental regulation could indirectly influence carbon emissions by influencing FDI, energy consumption, and technological innovation, and meanwhile, FDI, energy consumption, and technological innovation help to reduce carbon emissions under the constraint of environmental regulation, specifically. However, the impact of environmental regulation on carbon emissions through industrial structure is not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manufacturing is both an essential pillar of China's economy and a significant source of environmental pollution, and there is an urgent need for the manufacturing industry to use green innovation to accelerate its goal of sustainable development. From the intellectual property protection (IPP) perspective, this paper uses Chinese manufacturing and its 26 sub-sectors as a sample from 2003 to 2018, examining the impact of two-way foreign direct investment (FDI) coordinated development in manufacturing green innovation capability. The empirical results suggest that two-way FDI coordinated development enhances manufacturing green innovation, and this finding still holds after endogeneity and robustness tests. Under the influence of IPP, the relationship between two-way FDI coordinated development and manufacturing green innovation capability is nonlinear. Under the influence of macroscopic, mesoscopic, and microscopic dimensions IPP, the effect of two-way FDI coordinated development on manufacturing green innovation capability is U, Steps, and N shaped respectively. This paper's findings can provide empirical evidence for the government to formulate industrial development strategies and for manufacturing enterprises to improve their green innovation capabilities to achieve sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International openness can affect regional innovation through more export opportunities, enhanced import competition and the spillover effects of foreign direct investment. Many studies have been conducted based on different countries for capturing the determinants of regional innovation, but very little literature is available with contradictory findings for the case of China. Based on 19 years' panel data of 31 Chinese provinces, this paper analyzes the impact of international openness on regional innovation measured by the number of patent grants. The positive effects of overall trade and a higher proportion of exports and imports to GDP are significant and robust across different model specifications, indicating that an increase in international openness can promote regional innovating activities in China. The causal relationship of all the variables depicted by path analysis matches the results of the system GMM model. Higher intellectual property protection provides each region with the opportunity to obtain economic benefits from innovation and then make a higher investment in R&D activities. Besides, the lag effect of regional innovation capability can also explain a large part of local innovating activities. In our subsample regressions, the positive effect of trade openness on innovation is majorly manifested in developed areas like eastern provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impacts of FDI (foreign direct investment) on the innovation of Chinese local enterprises have always been the focus of attention, but few studies have explored the impacts of foreign shareholding on enterprise innovation behaviors through the micro level. Based on the survey data regarding the manufacturing sector of China enterprises conducted by the World Bank in 2012, this paper conducts an empirical study on the relationship between foreign shareholding and enterprise innovation behaviors. The research findings include two aspects; that is, (1) foreign shareholding has significantly positive impacts on enterprise innovation behaviors; (2) technology introduction plays a complete mediating effect in foreign shareholding and enterprise innovation behaviors. On the basis of considering sample selective bias and endogenous problems, the propensity score matching (PSM) method is further applied to evaluate the impacts of foreign shareholding on enterprise innovation behaviors. After putting the endogenous problems and sample selective bias under control, the above conclusions are still robust. Thus, under the current complicated international situation, enterprises should be encouraged to attract foreign investment under moderate control, with a view to accelerating the promotion of enterprise innovation activities through the technology introduction brought about by foreign shareholding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extant studies on FDI technology spillovers have reached inconclusive findings, indicating that the effect of FDI technology spillovers is likely to be contingent on a variety of factors. The present paper argues that one of the likely contingent factors is the distinction between FDI as an insider and FDI as an outsider to individual domestic firms. For instance, FDI in industry A is considered as insider FDI by domestic firms in industry A, but outsider FDI by domestic firms in industry B. Similarly, FDI in location X is considered as insider FDI by domestic firms in location X, but outsider FDI by domestic firms in location Y. Most extant studies failed to make this distinction. To fill this research gap, the present paper distinguishes industrial outsider FDI technology spillovers from industrial insider FDI technology spillovers on the one hand, and regional outsider FDI technology spillovers from regional insider FDI technology spillovers on the other. The study develops hypotheses, and tests them against firm-level data of the National Industrial Enterprise Survey compiled by the China National Bureau of Statistics. The paper finds that FDI as an industrial insider as well as a regional insider tends to produce positive technology spillovers, whereas FDI as an industrial outsider as well as a regional outsider tends to produce negative technology spillovers. In particular, FDI located in the advanced coastal region tends to adversely affect the productivity of domestic firms located in the interior region no matter whether or not the domestic firms are located in the same industry as the FDI. The patterns of FDI technology spillovers help explain the radical industrial upgrading associated with FDI in China, especially the rise of industries with substantial FDI inflows such as electronics, home appliance, and automobile in recent decades. The patterns of FDI technology spillovers also help explain the widening regional gap between the advanced East Coast region with substantial FDI inflows and the backward Inland region with limited FDI. Findings of the study have important implications for both managers of multinationals and the government of transition economies. While investing in rising industries, multinationals need to consider investing in these industrial sectors in the backward region of transition economies. While facilitating industrial upgrading, the government of transition economies should formulate effective policies to encourage multinationals to invest in rising industries in the backward region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years, foreign direct investment (FDI) has not only promoted rapid economic growth in China, but also affected the country's environmental quality through technology spillover. This paper tests the variables that may affect the ability of green innovation by using the Granger causality test. It extracts the variables passed the test as input variables, selects the number of patents as output variable, and evaluates the efficiency of various provinces in mainland China by examining their yearly technological progress variables. At the same time, technological progress is defined and divided into capital and environmental factors, and then panel data using the variable coefficients model was used to fit influencing factors to obtain impact coefficients of capital and environment. On this basis, this paper makes the determination of membership to replace the general sense of 'threshold' value by using fuzzy theory and proposes the concept of the 'comprehensive threshold' of economic development and environmental protection. The results show that less than a quarter of China's provinces have crossed the comprehensive threshold. Finally, based on the conclusions of quantitative analysis, some suggestions are proposed that the Chinese government ought to enact different strategies for the introduction of FDI according to different development situations of different provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a total-factor energy consumption performance index (TEPI) for measuring China's energy efficiency across 30 provinces during the period 1997 to 2012. The TEPI is derived by solving an improved non-radial data envelopment analysis (DEA) model, which is based on an energy distance function. The production possibility set is constructed by combining the super-efficiency and sequential DEA models to avoid “discriminating power problem” and “technical regress”. In order to explore the impacts of technological progress on TEPI and perform statistical inferences on the results, a two-stage double bootstrap approach is adopted. The important findings are that China's energy technology innovation produces a negative effect on TEPI, while technology import and imitative innovation produce positive effects on TEPI. Thus, the main contribution of TEPI improvement is technology import. These conclusions imply that technology import especially foreign direct investment (FDI) is important for imitative innovation and can improve China's energy efficiency. In the long run, as the technical level of China approaches to the frontier, energy technology innovation and its wide adoption become a sustained way to improve energy efficiency. Therefore, it is urgent for China to introduce measures such as technology translation and spillover policies as well as energy pricing reforms to support energy technology innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although it has been a consensus that the promotion of energy-saving technology plays a vital role in impelling the green transformation of economic development, the existing studies pay little attention to whether diversified technological sources present differentiated effects on energy-saving technological progress. Using the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) based on the translog production function, this paper estimates and compares the energy-saving technological progress rates of various industrial sub-sectors in China over 2001-2011. Furthermore, using the system generalized method of moments (SGMM), which is able to effectively control the endogeneity problem, we investigate the differentiated effects of six basic technological sources on energy-saving technological progress. The results show that although there are evident differences of energy-saving technological progress rates among different industrial sub-sectors, China's industrial energy-saving technological progress presents an overall improved trend. Among six primary technological sources, only the forward technological spillover effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the forced effect of competition have a significant positive impact on energy-saving technological progress, while the influences of backward and horizontal technology spillovers, original innovation, and leaning by exporting are all not significant. Moreover, industrial energy-saving technological progress shows an obvious path dependence propert, i.e., the previous high-level energy-saving technological progress has an evident positive impact on the current one. Accordingly, we propose that the Chinese government should encourage domestic industrial enterprises to learn and absorb advanced energy-saving technologies from foreign investment enterprises and by exporting products with more advanced technology content and added value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper explores the role of indigenous and foreign innovation efforts in technological upgrading in developing countries, taking into account sectoral specificities in technical change. Using a Chinese firm-level panel dataset covering 2001–05, the paper decomposes productivity growth into technical change and efficiency improvement and examines the impact of indigenous and foreign innovation efforts on these changes. Indigenous firms are found to be the leading force on the technological frontier in the low- and medium-technology industries, while foreign-invested firms enjoy a clear lead in the high-technology sector. Collective indigenous R&D activities at the industry level are found to be the major driver of technology upgrading of indigenous firms that push out the technology frontier. While foreign investment appears to contribute to static industry capabilities, R&D activities of foreign-invested firms have exerted a significant negative effect on the technical change of local firms over the sample period. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The importance of dealing with the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and green innovation for sustainable development is being highlighted. However, since FDI can have both positive and negative effects on sustainable development, coupled with regional differences and different development conditions, there is uncertainty about the relationship between FDI and green innovation. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2007 to 2018, this paper uses the two-tier stochastic frontier model to decompose the positive and negative effects of FDI on green innovation in different time periods and provinces, and considers the role of regional conditions that lead to regional differences in the green innovation effects of FDI, in order to better provide precise research findings for analyzing the relationship between FDI and green innovation in different provinces in China. First, empirical research shows that the inhibition effect of FDI on green innovation efficiency is smaller than the promotion effect, which makes the combined effect not obviously positive. The average inhibition effect of FDI on green innovation efficiency is 0.0041 and the average promoting effect is 0.0047, which makes the combined effect averaged 0.0006. Second, there are regional differences in the driving effect of FDI on green technology innovation. The western region's FDI has a greater drive effect on the efficiency of green innovation than the central and eastern regions. Third, the promoting effect character of FDI on green innovation efficiency is a "U" type with 70% percentile of the environmental regulation intensity as the inflection point. Due to the imperfection of China's economic structure at this stage, China's relatively developed regions have not yet established the market and industrial structure advantages to fully release the green innovation effect of FDI. Based on the research conclusions, to better promote green innovation efficiency, it is necessary to overcome the disadvantages of the green innovation process dominated by the central government, cultivate and develop green innovation markets, adopt incentive initiatives for foreign enterprises with green technology spillover effects, implement policies to address regional differences, and strengthen the interaction mechanism between FDI and green technology innovation in home countries. • Analyze the bilateral effects of FDI on green innovation efficiency. • FDI not only promotes but also restrains the efficiency of green innovation. • The inhibition effect of FDI is smaller than the promotion effect. • The combined effect of western regions is greater than eastern regions in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a model for the slacks-based measure of super-efficiency in data envelopment analysis (SBM-DEA) was used to measure the green innovation efficiency (GIE) of 79 cities in the Yellow River Basin (YRB) from 2003 to 2018. In addition, the panel threshold model was employed to test the nonlinear relationship between environmental regulation intensity (ERI) and GIE. According to the results, the average GIE in the YRB was 0.68. However, the GIE exhibited a rising and fluctuating temporal trend and the following spatial trend: "lower reaches > upper reaches > middle reaches." Moreover, ERI had a double threshold effect on GIE in the YRB. That is, ERI had a significant positive impact on GIE only when ERI ranged between 0.595 and 0.899. Furthermore, the upper, middle, and lower reaches of the YRB exhibited different nonlinear correlations between ERI and GIE. Therefore, it is essential to implement environmental regulations that are appropriate for the actual conditions of each region. In addition, the per capita income, teacher resources, industrial structure, and actual utilization of foreign capital are significant factors affecting GIE in the YRB. These findings can help governments formulate suitable environmental policies and promote green innovation in the YRB, thereby contributing toward the goal of global sustainable development. • The efficiency of green innovation in the Yellow River Basin increases. • The efficiency of green innovation shows a spatial pattern of "lower reaches > upper reaches > middle reaches". • Regulations have a double threshold effect on the efficiency of green innovation. • The efficiency of green innovation must be improved based on the actual development of each region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign direct investment flow, competitiveness and technological structure of foreign trade in China in the beginning of the 21st century. China's government introduced open market reforms in 1979, mediated by industrial policies improving the ability of attracting higher quality FDI (Foreign Direct Investment), which helped China's economy developing its technological capabilities. As a result, China's share in international trade rose impressively becoming third-largest trading nation in the world, by 2004, also its export structure is significantly more sophisticated. Facing the importance of understanding the determinants of developing word specialization patterns, this paper focuses on the competitiveness and technological structure of exports and imports by China for 1994-1998 and 2001-2005. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since economic reforms began in 1979, China has sought to overcome the technology gap by absorbing foreign advanced technology through FDI. This paper investigates the impact of FDI via exports on the innovation performance of domestic firms in China's high-tech product industries for the period 1995-2006. By using the panel data analysis, we confirm the hypotheses that: (1) exports of domestic firms have positive spillover effects on innovation performance of local firms either through learning or through competition; (2) R&D activities of foreign-invested enterprises in the host country in an industry are positively associated with innovation performance of domestic firms in that industry; and (3) import of technology, which is important to the establishment of assimilative capability, has positive effects on domestic innovation performance. This provides evidence suggesting that China's domestic firms benefit from spillovers associated with FDI and from export activity of both domestic firms and foreign-invested enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) enterprises in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Using geographical information system (GIS) spatial analysis and SPSS correlation analysis methods, it analyzes the change in the spatial distribution of OFDI enterprises in 2010, 2014, and 2018. It explores the influencing factors that have an impact on this change. The results show the following: (1) The geographical distribution of OFDI enterprises in the Yangtze River Economic Belt is uneven. In the downstream region, OFDI enterprises have significant advantages in both quantity and quality over those in the mid- and up-stream regions. In recent years, a multi-core spatial pattern has gradually emerged. (2) The factors influencing the spatial distribution of OFDI enterprises have been gradually changing from one dominant factor, i.e., technological innovation capability, to four core factors, namely, urbanization level, economic development level, technological innovation capability, and degree of economic openness. The research results serve as an important reference for future policy adjustment in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. First, the Yangtze River Economic Belt should adjust industrial policies; comprehensively increase the level of OFDI; accelerate the upgrading and transformation of regional industries; and, at the same time, inject vitality into the development of the world economy. Moreover, the downstream region should fully play a leading role in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, especially in encouraging OFDI enterprises to establish global production networks. Meanwhile, enterprises in the upstream region are encouraged to establish regional production networks to accelerate the development of inland open highlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wang, X. and Qi, Y., 2020. The impact of institutional distance on innovation performance of OFDI Enterprises: Comparison of coastal and inland regions in China. In: Gong, D.; Zhang, M., and Liu, R. (eds.), Advances in Coastal Research: Engineering, Industry, Economy, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 106, pp. 166–170. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) has a certain impact on enterprises' innovation performance through the reverse technology spillover effect. However, China's OFDI is not unevenly distributed, and the OFDI of the coastal economically developed regions has the highest proportion. The large institutional distance between the home country and the host country also affects the effect of OFDI reverse technology spillover on enterprises' innovation performance. This paper uses the moderated multiple regression model to analyze the moderate effects of institutional distance on the relationship between OFDI reverse technology spillover and enterprises' innovation performance, using the data of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies over the period of 2008–17. The results show that OFDI reverse technology spillover has a significantly positive effect on innovation performance and that the effect of coastal regions in China is stronger than that of inland regions; formal institutional distance (FID) and informal institutional distance negatively moderate the impact of reverse technology spillover on innovation performance of OFDI enterprises in inland regions, whereas the FID positively moderates the relationship between reverse technology spillover on innovation performance of OFDI enterprises in coastal regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]