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China, being the world's largest exporter, has now certain environmental commitments such as to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. These commitments of China has raised a reasonable concern regarding the expected reduction in the production and export of pollution intensive goods in the future. Besides China, the most efficient countries in the region to produce these goods are most of the member countries from ASEAN. The current study therefore aims to analyze if in the future, China reduces the production and export of these goods, whether the selected ASEAN countries can be the next choice for the export of pollution intensive goods. Based on the data availability for the period 1990–2019, this study considers five selected ASEAN countries (ASEAN-5). The results are based on the Auto Regressive Distributive Lag (ARDL) bound testing approach to cointegration and Error Correction Modeling (ECM). The aggregate analysis of five pollution intensive goods (pulp and paper (341), industrial chemicals (351), non-metallic minerals products (369), iron and steel (371) and non-ferrous metals (372)) suggests that Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow can significantly increase the export of pollution intensive goods only in case of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. However, there is no significant effect of FDI on the export of pollution intensive goods in case of Philippines and Singapore. The disaggregate analyses of the five pollution intensive goods suggest that in each of the ASEAN-5 countries, FDI inflow can significantly increase the export of pollution intensive goods in some of these industries rather than in all of them. In nutshell, it is concluded that ASEAN-5 countries can be a potential choice for the export of pollution intensive goods in some of the pollution intensive industries but not in all of them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objective: The relationship between FDI and trade has long been the subject of much economist research. However, many theoretical and empirical studies have not reached a universal and definitive conclusion. The prevailing view is that there may be substitution, complementarity and ambiguity between the two. The scientific goal of the article is to explore the relationship between China's FDI and trade with the European Union (EU) and to examine whether it is complementary or substitute. Materials and methods: The paper selects China's imports and exports from the EU and China's total direct investment in the EU from 2005-2020 and utilises quantitative analyses. The co-integration analysis and Granger causality test analysis were conducted in this paper. Results: It can be concluded that there is a stationary linear combination and long-term equilibrium relationship between Chinese FDI to the EU and trade with the EU. At the same time, Granger causality tests revealed a bidirectional causality relationship between China's FDI and trade with the EU. Practical implications: This paper provides information on the relationship between investment and trade when developed regions receive investment from a developing country. The study shows that Chinese investment in the EU and China-EU trade are mutually reinforced. Conclusion and summary: Chinese direct investment in the EU and China-EU bilateral trade interact with each other. A complementary relationship was found between China's FDI and trade with the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the characteristics and mechanisms of cultural diversity that affect foreign direct investment (FDI) using the panel data on provinces in China from 1999 to 2019 and find that, in general, cultural diversity inhibits FDI absorption. However, this kind of adverse effect has a nonlinear threshold characteristic. That is, when the population density reaches a certain level or urbanization is controlled within a certain range, the increase in cultural diversity can weaken the inhibitory effect on FDI. Additionally, by exploring the mechanisms of cultural diversity affecting FDI, we further find that cultural diversity inhibits FDI mainly through the channels of inhibiting population density and urbanization. The conclusions of this paper not only enrich the theoretical research on FDI location from the perspective of cultural diversity but also shed light on how to better attract FDI to China and other countries, such as resolving cultural conflicts and constructing an inclusive investment environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate the effect of environmental regulations on inward foreign direct investment in China. For this purpose, a panel threshold model was constructed to assess the threshold effects of environmental regulations on the influx of foreign direct investments (FDI). The findings indicate that, under the influence of human capital, the impact of environmental regulations on FDI in China was characterized by a V-shaped curve, indicating an initial inhibitory effect followed by a subsequent increase. A plausible explanation is that specific pollution-generating FDI must withdraw from China because of stringent environmental regulations before human capital reaches a certain threshold level. Meanwhile, impaired by the adverse selection effect, some cleaner-production FDI cannot easily enter China. As a result, environmental regulations in this stage have an inhibitory effect on FDI in China. However, part of the pollution-generating FDI is converted into cleaner production after the human capital level reaches the threshold limit. Further, due to the positive selection effect, additional cleaner-production FDI can also enter China from different destinations. At this stage, environmental regulations boost overall FDI entering China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the main engine of the global economy, China has been attracting increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) since the 1980s. The frequent occurrence of pollution incidents by multinational companies and the continuous deterioration of the environment have prompted China to attach importance to environmental regulations and attempt to avoid the potential pollution heaven effect of FDI on green development. To assess the effectiveness of these environmental regulations, this paper investigates the moderating effect of environmental regulation, in particular, the heterogeneous environmental regulatory tools, on the relationship between FDI and green economic efficiency. In addition, the spatial performance of these moderating effects is examined through the spatial Durbin model (SDM), using China's provincial panel data from 2004 to 2018. The results show that environmental regulation has an overall positive moderating effect, exacerbating the pollution heaven effect of FDI on green economic efficiency. In the meantime, the moderating effects of heterogeneous environmental regulations are obviously different; i.e., command-and-control and public-participation-based environmental regulations have positive moderating effects, while market-based environmental regulation has a negative moderating effect. In addition, in terms of spatial performance, the market-based environmental regulation has a positive spillover effect, thereby promoting green economic efficiency in surrounding regions, which is contrary to command-and-control and public-participation-based environmental regulations. Based on the above findings, this paper makes some recommendations for policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the potential impacts of foreign divestment on the growth of China's High-tech Manufacturing industry by developing a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model that features foreign direct investment (FDI). Simulation results show that when FDI inflow stops, domestic firms substitute foreign firms rapidly, stimulating output relative to the baseline scenario. However, when foreign divestment is continuous or drastic, there are sizable adverse impacts on domestic firms' output with the decreasing labour productivity relative to the baseline. The further decomposition of labour productivity growth suggests that larger foreign divestment results in a more substantial reduction in technological catch-up and technological change, implying the crucial role of FDI-related technology transfer and spillover in the growth of China's high-tech manufacturing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses cointegrated error-correction modeling to investigate the nature of Granger causality between corruption and foreign direct investment (FDI) in two rapidly emerging economic superpowers; namely, China and India. The results for China and India indicate that short-run Granger causality unidirectionally runs from FDI to corruption without feedback. These empirical findings (along with supporting theoretical arguments) dispute prior correlational-based studies which claim that corruption instigates changes in FDI. However, our results further support significant long-run causality running from corruption to FDI inflows, but only in India (not in China). This finding reinforces theoretical propositions of lower corruption arbitrariness in China as compared to India. Furthermore, short- and long-run causality between corruption and FDI in India appear dynamic in nature and time-sensitive implying some difficulties for policymakers in their fight against corruption. The paper discusses possible underlying reasons for the empirical results and draws several policy and Asian business implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically investigates the impacts of FDI on operation and innovation performance of China's national high-tech zones by using the SBM-VRS and Tobit model. The results show that in general, FDI promotes the growth of operation performance of high-tech zones, but has no significant effect on their innovation performance, after controlling the characteristics in cities and high-tech zones level. Furtherly, the paper finds that FDI increases per expenditure on R&D activity, but decreases ratio of technical income, which explains why FDI doesn't have significant effect on innovation performance. Different regions make different sense. FDI has significantly positive effect on operation performance of all high-tech zones located on eastern, central and western regions, while FDI only makes a positive effect on innovation performance of those high-tech zones on western and central region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the slack-based measure-Malmquist–Luenberger (SBM-ML) method to calculate green total factor energy productivity (GTFEP), constructs a dynamic panel data model to analyse the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) and technological progress (TP) on GTFEP, and further verifies robustness through heterogeneity tests, quantile regression and a dynamic spatial Durbin model. The main results of this study show that from a national perspective, GTFEP has the characteristics of accumulation and sustainability, and the GTFEP value is positively affected by the value in the previous period. FDI, TP and their interaction term can all contribute significantly to GTFEP, and the effect of FDI in promoting GTFEP through TP is very obvious. The regional heterogeneity test shows that FDI can play a significant role only in the central region, and resource-based city policy can improve GTFEP to a certain extent. The results of quantile regression show that there is a dynamic process of the marginal effects of FDI and TP on GTFEP. The empirical results of the dynamic spatial Durbin model show that the results are still robust after considering spatial factors. Finally, corresponding policy implications are proposed based on the empirical conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a global dynamic general equilibrium model with foreign direct investment (FDI) and technology capital, this paper finds that the EU–China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) could bring modest but nonnegligible benefits to both sides. Under an illustrative scenario in which the CAI increases the degree of openness to bilateral FDI by 10%, the EU's FDI to China could rise by a factor of 3–4 and China's FDI to the EU by a factor of 3. These would generate a gain in the steady‐state gross national product (GNP) of 0.23% for China and 0.73% for the EU. The cumulative household welfare gain in the present value term is equivalent to 0.36% and 0.13% of GNP annually for China and the EU, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By analysing comprehensive firm data from 1999 to 2013 categorized by zip code, we find that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) companies consistently received more local government subsidies in China. When comparing FDI within the same county and year, it becomes evident that FDI creates positive growth and productivity spillovers for other businesses in the same zip code. Furthermore, there is additional evidence to support the amenities channel as a possible productivity spillover channel. This paper makes a significant contribution to the debate regarding FDI's spillover effects at a disaggregated level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unbalanced growth of FDI in China has seriously affected the coordinated development of China's regional economies. Therefore, to achieve comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development, China's main strategic task is determining how to adopt positive and effective FDI policies to reduce this regional imbalance in FDI. The purpose of this paper is to explore and study the spillover effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on China's sustainable development. In this paper, based on the new political economics theory and overflow effects, comparative research and statistical research methods are adopted that combine static and dynamic analysis. Empirical research methods are combined with normative research to analyse the spillover effects of FDI on China's sustainable development, particularly under the new situation of global crisis and the accompanying difficulties, to determine how to promote China's FDI and the development of China's sustainable progress strategy. The study found that in 2018, FDI in China reached a value of 13.466 billion US $, and the year-on-year growth in FDI in recent years has been basically stable at approximately 4 %. Asia is the main source of FDI in China. In 2018, the amount of FDI in Asia reached $109.1938.7 billion, accounting for 83.33 % of the total investment. Hong Kong, with its unique advantages, accounted for 72.12 % of FDI in China. FDI inflows are mainly directed to primary industry and the service sector, and the growth rate of foreign investment in 2016 in these sectors was 68.52 and 170.77 %, respectively, compared with 2007. FDI also mainly flows to the eastern region of China. By the end of 2018, the amount of foreign capital utilized in the eastern region reached $1,622.9 billion, representing 85.4 % of the aggregate FDI in China. The effect of FDI on China mainly focuses on three areas: economic growth, social development and environmental protection. FDI has brought positive spillover effects to China's sustainable evolution, but with China's continuous development, especially the change in its economic development mode, it has been consistently exposed to negative spillover effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the effect of foreign-firm work experience on entrepreneurial choice in China. We propose a theoretical framework to explore the possible positive and negative effects of foreign-firm work experience on the decision to become an entrepreneur. Based on a large-scale individual-level database from China, this paper finds a significant and robust negative relationship between prior foreign-firm work experience and entrepreneurial choice, which can be explained by the characteristics of jobs in foreign firms in China. Our results indicate that FDI crowds out Chinese entrepreneurship at the individual level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green development is a strategy for China's sustainable economic growth, and improving green total factor energy efficiency (GTFEE) is the key to achieving the dual goals of energy conservation, emission reduction, and economic development. This paper takes panel data of 267 prefecture-level cities in China from 2004 to 2019 as samples to explore how heterogeneous environmental regulation can have the effects of FDI on GTFEE. The results show that, first, except for environmental regulation and FDI independently affecting GTFEE, there is a synergistic effect between environmental regulation and FDI, and their interaction can also significantly affect GTFEE. Secondly, FDI has no significant impact on GTFEE when environmental regulation is low, but FDI can significantly improve GTFEE when environmental regulation is high. Thirdly, market-based environmental regulations (MER) have a better improvement effect on GTFEE than command-based environmental regulations (CER). Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the benign interaction between FDI and environmental regulation, especially giving full play to the role of market-based environmental regulation and further improving the design of command-based environmental regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the end of the 1970s, the People's Republic of China (PRC) promoted policies to attract investments from the developed capitalist world, aiming for technological transfer and offering a profitable environment in exchange. Although the TNC capital, know-how, and technology have been key factors for Chinese development, the State has planned and regulated those investments, so they can be aligned with an autonomous project of development, avoiding the classic centre-periphery dependency relationship. This paper analysis focuses on the Five-Year Plans, and the regulation policy laws for inward investment. At the end we analyse the FDI data, which allowed us to identify the main changes and distinct phases of the development of FDI and the State policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of English as a lingua franca on FDI by using the bilateral FDI data between China and 36 OECD countries. We find that English as a lingua franca significantly promotes FDI between China and OECD countries; the impact of English proficiency on outward FDI is greater than that on inward FDI in China; the improvement of English proficiency is more conducive to promoting China's FDI with non-English-speaking countries than with English-speaking countries. Our findings suggest that English can be an effective lingua franca to remove language barriers in FDI for developing countries, especially when the investing partners are high-income and non-English-speaking countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determine the main factors affecting carbon emissions of the Chinese steel industry is indispensable commitments to achieve the sustainable development of China. Hereby, based on the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology (STIPRAT) model, this paper combines the economic growth function, carbon emission production function, and the FDI function of the Chinese steel industry, and uses the three-stage least square equation model (3SLS) to analyze the relationship between China's economic growth, carbon emissions in the steel industry, and FDI (foreign direct investment) inflows. The results document a complete two-way causal relationship of three variables in the whole country and the Western region, while the relationship in the Eastern region and the Central region is not complete. Moreover, there are no bidirectional causal relationship between carbon emissions and FDI in the Eastern region, while only bidirectional causality between carbon emissions and FDI in the Central region. These findings are of great significance for the Chinese steel industry to formulate effective emission reduction policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different from the existing literature which only studied the unilateral impact of the FDI or the ODI on economic growth, this paper took both the FDI and the ODI into the analysis framework of international capital flow on economic growth, and tried to introduce the mediating effect model to test the transmission mechanism and influence effect of international capital two-way flow on the economic growth. The results showed that both the FDI and the ODI can significantly improve the quality of economic growth, and the role of the FDI was stronger than that of the ODI. At the same time, the FDI and the ODI had obvious regional heterogeneity in promoting the quality of economic growth. International capital flow mainly requires three mediating effects to improve the quality of economic growth, which are the employment, the technology spillover as well as the output efficiency. The three effects of the FDI have a played significant role in promoting the quality of economic growth, while the ODI mainly plays a role through the improvement of output efficiency and technology reverse spillover. There are also significant regional differences in mediating effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental regulation is considered an important means to solve PM2.5 pollution. Based on panel data of 280 cities in China from 2003 to 2016, this paper analyzes the dual effects of environmental regulation on PM2.5 pollution, namely, the direct effect and the indirect effect by three transmission channels of the technological innovation, industrial structure, and foreign direct investment (FDI). The impact of urban heterogeneity on the effects of environmental regulation is then examined. The study found that environmental regulation has a significant negative impact on PM2.5 pollution. In addition, environmental regulation can indirectly reduce PM2.5 pollution through technological innovation and industrial structure adjustment. However, it also restrains the environmental spillover effect of FDI, in this way exacerbating PM2.5 pollution. Urban heterogeneity factors such as geographical location, city size, and resource endowment have an impact on pollution control and the haze reduction effect of environmental regulation. Finally, based on the research conclusion, some suggestions are proposed for strengthening environmental regulation and reducing PM2.5 pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a simultaneous equations model, this paper investigates how/whether the presence of foreign direct investment (FDI) affects the performance of local firms in China's (1) leather shoe manufacturing and (2) textile and garment manufacturing industries. We use the value of sales (total revenue) as a measure of firm performance in domestic and export markets. The distinguishing feature of this paper is the use of an FDI presence measure that takes the regional dimension into account. The empirical analysis presented in this paper reveals that the presence of FDI leads to a significant positive impact on the domestic sales and export intensity of local firms in both industries. This result is found to be robust to alternative measures of FDI. Based on the result, it is recommended that, in order to maximize the benefits from inward FDI, Chinese policy-makers must encourage domestic and foreign-invested firms to locate in close geographical proximity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) in producer services in China using both country aggregate and provincial sub-sectoral data. Design/methodology/approach: This paper applies autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) cointegration and panel data regression approaches in examining the determinants of Producer Service FDI (PSFDI). Findings: Our results show differences between the determinants of aggregate FDI and PSFDI. Contrary to the typical influencing factors of general FDI (that include GDP, openness, low wages and environmental quality), the two main determinants of PSFDI inflows to China are found to be high wages and research inputs (specifically the number of research workers as a proxy for research intensity). Data drawn from 26 Chinese provinces disaggregated at sub-sector level of producer services corroborate the results. Originality/value: We add to existing literature by identifying the key determinants of inward PSFDI in China also via a provincial-level data analysis and disaggregation at sub-sectoral level of producer services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between FDI and CO2 emissions in a nonlinear framework using data from countries along the "One Belt, One Road" from 1979 to 2017 as the sample. First, the linear analysis method was used to examine the stability of FDI and CO2 emissions in countries along the "One Belt, One Road." In addition, the BDS (Brock-Dechert-Scheinkman test) method and nonlinear Granger causality test are used to investigate the nonlinear relationship between variables. Finally, a threshold vector autoregressive model (TVAR) is used to analyze the dynamic change mechanism between China's FDI and CO2 emissions, and a threshold vector error correction model (TVECM) is used to test how the variables respond to deviations from equilibrium. Then, the Markov switching model is used to test the robustness of the results. The research results show that China, India, South Africa, and other countries all have a nonlinear causal relationship between FDI and CO2 emissions. At the same time, the comovement of FDI and CO2 emissions in China has obvious structural break features, which are relevant for the underlying regime. Furthermore, the results also show that the adjustment process of the FDI toward equilibrium is highly persistent in the first regime, and CO2 emissions will adjust to an equilibrium state at a faster speed in the second regime. Therefore, this paper puts forward different policy suggestions for different countries. For China, we should pay attention to the long-term benefits of FDI and introduce high-tech green FDI. [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]

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze outbound investments from China at the time of economic crisis caused due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and how target valuation and the host country's inbound investment policies influence the acquisition intents. As firms witness low valuations during an economic downturn, they become attractive targets for opportunistic buyers, who may be driven by motives beyond business and influenced by the home country's political agenda. Such attempts are countered with the adoption of restrictive investment policies in host countries. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses secondary data on cross-border acquisitions from China over the past year and compares the characteristics of these acquisitions with cross-border acquisitions of acquirers from other large developed and developing economies. Findings: Statistical analyzes show that there are significant differences in the way acquirers from China pursue strategic asset seeking, creeping and control seeking acquisitions during the pandemic and the pre-pandemic period. This paper also observes that reduced valuation of the target, due to economic downturn or otherwise, result in greater propensity in strategic asset seeking acquisitions by Chinese acquirers. At the same time, adverse policies at host nations negatively influence the strategic asset seeking propensity of these acquirers. In addition, the premium in the valuation of target assets during the pandemic does not drop significantly when compared with that of the pre-pandemic period. Originality/value: With the outbreak of COVID-19 and its concomitant economic impact across the globe, the study brings forwards insights on predatory foreign direct investment (FDI) and explores how policy responses in host countries can be comprehensive rather than disembedded and unilateral. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explains the growth-inequality nexus for China's provinces. The theoretical model of provincial development consists of two regions and studies the interactions of a mutually dependent development process. Owing to positive externalities, incoming trade and FDI induce imitation and hence productivity growth. The regional government can influence the economy by changing international transaction costs and providing a public infrastructure. Mobile domestic capital reinforces disparity effects. The implications of the theoretical model are tested. As the central intention of the paper is to explain provincial disparity, we directly relate income disparity (indicated by the contribution to the per capita income Theil index) to the disparity of selected income determining factors (indicated by the contribution to every other Theil index of the determinants). We examine the determinants of inequality for 28 Chinese provinces over the period 1991-2004 and apply a fixed effects panel estimation. The results confirm the theoretical framework and suggest a direct link between the factors that determine regional income and regional disparity. More specifically, it is apparent that disparities in trade, foreign and domestic capital and infrastructure have an impact on the provincial income Theil disparity, whereas provincial disparities in government expenditure and human capital do not seem to drive the income Theil disparity. Therefore, three decades of government reforms led to an extraordinary success of some provinces and increasing inequality. However, government expenditures and public human capital investments seemed to have a stabilizing effect on provincial disparity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to identify the impact of economic integration on trade competitiveness and demonstrate its effects on trade and investment performance of member nations. Design/methodology/approach: The study compiles some price indices to provide a systematic assessment of competitiveness in the BRICS region. The panel regression framework estimates the impact of integration on trade competitiveness and the external sector performance of BRICS nations. Findings: The findings of the research highlight the prospects for strong, closer and sustained integration in BRICS and, more importantly, the contribution of competitiveness to FDI receipts and export growth. Research limitations/implications: The assessment of exports and investment experiences of BRICS nations, particularly China and India, provides further evidence in support of the logical design and strategic use of their foreign trade policies. Originality/value: The economic partnership that wants to sustain this high road to global economic space needs strategic orientations to promote their partnership in other interest areas to make the cooperation more competitive in price terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China began to strive for innovation-driven economic growth by encouraging technological progress since the recent world financial crisis. Further, Chinese economy exhibited several different features since the crisis. Its financial credits surged. Meanwhile, it began to adjust its industrial structures. In order to test the effect of these policies, this paper investigates whether financial development, FDI and industrial structure changes affect innovation in this new era. The results find that provincial variation in innovation performance enlarged during this period. Further, financial development significantly improves innovation. However, FDI hampers innovation. Lastly, industrial structure adjustment promotes innovation. The paper suggests that China improve the technological skills of local firms and its human capital and introduce high-quality and efficient foreign direct investment to achieve an innovation-driven economic growth. [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]

Following economic reforms, China has become one of the premiere destinations for foreign capital; however, the benefits of this spectacular growth are not evenly distributed. Since the beginning of the 2000s, the Chinese government has designed and implemented policies to encourage foreign investment in central and western provinces to help decrease the significant distributional differences in regional industrial value-added, with limited success. In contrast to previous literature, this paper uses Panel Least Squares method to analyze empirically the impact of industrial sector FDI on Chinese regional inequality in industrial value-added 2003–2013, using three Chinese regions. The lack of prerequisite institutional structure to aid in FDI absorption affects location choices. Despite government policies to support inland regional economic development, foreign firms still prefer to invest in coastal provinces, further illustrating the effects of regional clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing involvement of China in the African region has continued to stimulate questions on the impact of her involvement in the region. This paper attempt to contribute to this debate and as well pursue a development goal by empirically answering the question that "can China's FDI in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) stimulate the sub-region's industrialization?" Consequently, data used for this study were obtained from China Africa Research Initiative, the World Bank and the Energy Information Administrator (EIA) websites for a sample of 26 economies in the SSA over the period 2003–2016. Panel-Corrected Standard Error (PCSE) was used to achieve the objectives of the study. The PCSE estimate result indicates that China's FDI in SSA has an insignificant but positive effect on SSA industrialization. Suggesting that China's FDI is not enough to boost industrialization in SSA. Furthermore, the result shows that the electricity supply in SSA has a significant and positive impact on industrialization in the continent. For SSA to benefit from China FDI significantly, SSA government must prioritize and where necessary modify future agreement to promote or prioritize Chinese investment in sectors with positive linkages with the manufacturing sector and increasing local outsourcing of inputs and intermediate production activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an empirical examination of Japanese investors' location decisions in China and variations in those decisions. The mixed logit model, a recent advancement in discrete choice models, is adopted for the first time in plant location literature by virtue of its superior ability to accommodate heterogeneity. The paper is also intended to propose and establish a systematic method to detect heterogeneity in location choice situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper uses data for China during the period 1982-2010 and tests the effect of FDI inflows on income inequality, which is measured by the urban Gini coefficient. A small-sample cointegration test and autoregressive distributed lag bounds test are used as the cointegration tests. According to them, the variables under consideration are not cointegrated. The GMM estimation results show that income inequality worsens with FDI flows into China. The evidence from China shows a non-linear effect of FDI inflows on income inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper empirically examines Indian investment in China and its spatial distribution across 17 Chinese provinces during 2005–2015. Indian investments in China have spread across heterogeneous provinces. The location of ventures has been shaped by several provincial characteristics and locational advantages that include infrastructural facilities, lower wages, markets and openness; economic geography forces that include agglomeration of foreign and private firms and policies and engagements of the local governments. As such multiple determinants of location choice can be observed, which provide insights into the locational determinants of firms from one emerging country in another. Chinese inland provinces trying to attract Indian investment need to focus on developing locational advantages at par with the coastal regions and on economic geography. However, the scale of operation of Indian companies in China remains smaller due to several China-specific challenges. Industrial bodies and investment promotion agencies may aid in building firm-capacity to deal with China-specific challenges, with adequate emphasis on the spatial characteristics of provinces, to overcome business challenges. The increase in Indian investment in China shall be beneficial provided the firms and their activities generate complementarity in the bilateral economic relationship between the two countries and in the product and factor markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluated productivity through metafrontier slacks-based measure, and explored the time and regional heterogeneity of productivity from static and dynamic perspectives. We also conducted convergence analysis on productivity. Our empirical results show that the east has the highest Technological Gap Ratio (TGR), which reveals that the east has the lowest production technology heterogeneity in China. Production heterogeneity has increased since 2004. FDI had negative effects on productivity, especially in the middle, west and northeast regions, which indicates FDI had a "crowding out" effect in China. Productivity displayed a convergence trend from 2004 to 2012. It is important for China's local firms to enhance indigenous innovation and increase knowledge spillover in order to decrease their production technology gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a double mechanism model to separate two foreign direct investment (FDI) intra-industry spillovers mechanisms: spillovers by FDI intensity and by FDI efficiency. This paper seeks to illustrate the potential use of the double mechanism model rather than provide precise estimates of spillovers. The evidence on the links between technology and the nature, size and mechanisms of FDI spillovers effects in economically developing countries is mixed. Design/methodology/approach – A model is developed and tested, in principle. Empirical testing was conducted in two steps. In the first step, the authors examined the effect of each influencing factor to FDI spillovers separately. To complete this step, the authors divided the whole sample industry into sub-groups and tested them with the double-mechanism using ordinary least squares regression. This study applies Chinese National Bureau of Statistics manufacturing industry level data, for the years 2000, 2001 and 2002, including the food industry, beverage industry, textile industry, textiles and garments, chemicals and chemical products industry, overall manufacturing equipment, special equipment, computer and other electronic equipment manufacturing industries. Findings – The analysis suggests significant differences between types of spillovers: export orientation of domestic firms mainly influences FDI spillovers by intensity; the capability gap between local and foreign firms influences spillovers by efficiency; and the growth of local firms influences both types of spillovers. This paper develops existing models of FDI and suggests that disaggregating spillovers types may provide important theoretical and policy insights. Originality/value – This study has found, first, that compared with the classic single mechanism model, the double mechanism model is more appropriate for testing FDI intra-industry spillovers, as it is able to separate spillovers by intensity and spillovers by efficiency, which are shown as two distinct mechanisms for FDI spillovers. This allows a deeper analysis into each mechanism and the identification of relevant influencing factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose China’s outward foreign direct investment (ODI) has become a recent phenomenon in that China is now rated as the world’s third largest country for ODI. Previous studies have found that China’s ODI is driven by the attractions of natural resources and overseas markets. Yet these studies have ignored the role of corporate governance at a national level, the paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach The Kaufmann et al. (1999) data set is used in our study and the data sample have covered the period from 2003 to 2012 for a comprehensive set of 171 host countries. Random effects model are applied in the paper and population average model is used to check the robustness of the results.Findings The authors find that the effects of macro-corporate governance are distinct in different sample periods, as well as in geographical and economic regions, when attracting China’s ODI. Indicators such as political stability, the absence of violence, regulatory effectiveness, regulatory quality, the rule of law and the control of corruption are found to be positively related to China’s ODI.Originality/value This is one of the first papers to investigate the relationship between macro-corporate governance indicators and China’s ODI. 171 countries are included in the data sample and sub-sample tests are also conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy technology innovation is the necessary way and fundamental means to lead, promote, and support the revolution of energy production and consumption. While natural hazards, as an unavoidable external risk in the long-term development of human society, may affect the regional energy innovation level. In this study, we use the SDM bifixed model to investigate the direct, indirect, and aggregate effects of natural hazards on energy technology innovation for data of 31 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020. Results indicate that (1) Natural hazards not only have a significant negative impact on local energy technology innovation, but also inhibit energy technology innovation in neighboring regions, with significant spatial spillover effects. (2) Natural hazards have a more pronounced effect in western cities. (3) Natural hazards can enhance energy technology innovation through increasing environmental regulation and reducing FDI. Our study offers suggestions for strengthening post-natural disaster reconstruction and sub-regional resilience to disaster shocks, improving environmental regulation laws and regulations, and attracting more foreign direct investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the effect of precipitation on the location of foreign direct investment (FDI) based on city-level data of China from 2003 to 2018. The results show that precipitation has a significant promoting effect on the regional agglomeration of FDI. This indicates that FDI location selection is more inclined to use the dilution ability of precipitation for pollution to reduce environmental costs, rather than relying solely on water resources. Further analysis shows that the preference of FDI enterprises on precipitation in the eastern region is significantly lower than that in the central and northeastern regions. This reflects the trend that FDI enterprises gradually shift to regions with a low degree of environmental regulation to reduce environmental costs. Therefore, the efforts made by economically developed cities to improve the regional ecological environment may be offset by the location adjustment of FDI enterprises, and precipitation has become an important stimulus for the location transfer of FDI enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines and evaluates China's global rise and the state of the transatlantic discussions about this issue. Since 2010, the rise of China has been accompanied by multiple Chinese initiatives on the international front, especially in the fields of trade and investment. Chinese overseas direct investments are on the rise at a global level. The creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, of the Silk Road Fund, and of the 'Belt and Road' initiative are signs of a much more assertive China that is now engaging Western countries, including Europe and the USA. Western reactions, both at governmental and grass-root levels have been mixed. Two questions emerge: can Europeans agree on a common policy toward China? And can the USA and the European Union pursue a dialog and a more coordinated strategy? This will be especially relevant in the context of President Donald Trump's administration as well as newly elected governments in France and Germany following general elections in these countries in 2017. The future of a transatlantic dialog should also encompass the British question when the UK leaves the EU. As the USA and leading European countries map their foreign policy strategies in coming years, there is a need to elevate policy coordination toward China in the hierarchy of political and economic goals. The paper offers some suggestions on possible priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By using SFA (stochastic frontier analysis) and threshold panel regression, the role of marketization degree and human capital level in FDI (foreign direct investment) spillover in China's equipment manufacturing industry is analyzed in this paper. The results show that there is significant threshold effect of marketization degree and human capital level on FDI spillover. When marketization degree changes beyond the threshold level, the influence of FDI on the technical efficiency of equipment manufacturing industry will vary from inhibition to promotion, and when the human capital level changes beyond the threshold level, FDI will further increase the technical efficiency. Importance should be attached to increasing the marketization degree and the human capital level, especially developing the sub-sectors in China's equipment manufacturing industry which haven't achieved the threshold level, thus raising the promoting effect of FDI on technical efficiency and achieving the goal of sustainable utilization of FDI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By examining the data on 13,663 newly established FDI firms and the environmental regulation reforms between 2000 and 2010, this paper studies whether foreign investors in China exhibit pollution haven behavior. Our analyses indicate that fewer FDI firms locate in provinces with more stringent environmental regulations (i.e., with higher pollution levy rates). Consistent results are found when we examine the individual firm's location choice decision. We further find that firms' location patterns respond to the changes in environmental regulations. In particular, their pollution haven behavior becomes more significant when the changes bring greater inter-provincial differences in environmental stringency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an investigation of the relationship between FDI and regional inequality during the stage of Chinese new regional development strategy. This prefectural level analysis is different from most other studies conducted at the provincial level. A spatial panel data approach is taken to examine the role of FDI in regional convergence at the national level and the economic region level, which is defined according to China's regional development programme. This study explicitly considers the spatial correlation issue in testing the role of FDI through spatial panel data models. The results suggest previous findings on the general relationships between FDI and economic development at the national level are too general. Although, the positive and significant effect of FDI on regional economic growth is confirmed at national level, the regional level analysis concludes that FDI does not have a consistent effect across different regions after controlling for other economic and social factors. The paper thus suggests that FDI related preferential policies toward the inland regions under the new development strategy will need to be tailored to region-specific characteristics if they are to be successful. Resumen. Este artículo investiga la relación entre la Inversión Extranjera Directa (IED) y la desigualdad regional durante la etapa de la nueva estrategia de desarrollo regional en China. Este análisis a nivel de prefecturas es distinto a la mayoría los estudios realizados a nivel provincial. Se empleó un enfoque de datos de panel espaciales para examinar el papel de la IED en la convergencia regional a nivel nacional y a nivel de regiones económicas, definidas de acuerdo con el programa de desarrollo regional de China. Este estudio tiene en cuenta explícitamente el problema de la correlación espacial al evaluar el papel de la IED a través de modelos de datos de panel espaciales. Los resultados sugieren que los hallazgos previos sobre las relaciones en general entre la IED y el desarrollo económico a nivel nacional son demasiado generales. Aunque se confirma el efecto positivo y significativo a nivel nacional de la IED sobre el crecimiento económico regional, el análisis por regiones lleva a concluir que el efecto de la IED no es uniforme para las diferentes regiones, después de controlar otros factores económicos y sociales. El artículo sugiere por tanto que las políticas relacionadas con la IED que bajo la nueva estrategia de desarrollo muestran preferencia por las regiones del interior, y que para que puedan tener éxito tendrán que ser adaptadas a medida de las características específicas de cada región. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green innovation is an effective path to decrease environmental pollutions. It is of immense interest to evaluate the roles of green innovation on SO2 emissions reduction. We also investigate the static and dynamic threshold effect of human capital in the impacting paths of different innovations on SO2 emissions. The empirical results show that the design patent increases SO2 emissions while the development of utility patent can decrease SO2 emissions based on the static analysis and dynamic analysis. Both the "pollution halo" and the "pollution heaven" hypotheses of foreign direct investment (FDI) are validated in China. Moreover, green innovation positively affects SO2 emission reduction based on the System Generalized Method of Moment (SYS‐GMM) estimation. Both static and dynamic panel threshold regression results reveal that the positive effects of different innovations will become larger when human capital exceeds the corresponding threshold values. Hence, it is important to enhance green human capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By using provincial socioeconomic and environmental data, this paper examines the relationship between human capital, FDI and pollution emissions in China. The result shows the impact of FDI on pollution emission is highly dependent on the level of human capital. FDI is negatively associated with pollution emissions in provinces with the higher levels of human capital, whereas FDI is positively related to pollution emissions in provinces with the lower levels of human capital. This suggests that pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) holds only in those provinces with low human capital. This study also finds that the sign of FDI's effect on each pollutant' emission requires the different threshold level of human capital, which may help to reconcile the current conflicting PHH empirical evidences partially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes aggregate return to capital statistics for China, the United States, and Japan in order to investigate the causes of an unusually high investment rate and increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to China. We also analyze labor's share of output and capital-output ratio statistics to predict future trends in the return to capital in China. Our findings allow us to come to four conclusions: (1) China's high investment rate corresponds to a high return to capital in the country, just as high investment rates in the United States and Japan historically correspond to a high return to capital. (2) A comparatively higher return to capital attracted FDI to China. (3) Investment rates among these three countries show no signs of convergence so far. These differences will likely persist, encouraging FDI to continue to flow into China in near future. (4) The return to capital in China will likely decrease in the long run, as the experiences of Japan and the United States indicate, but will only decrease and become stable after a certain level of capital stock and development is reached. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks into whether China's continuously high economic growth is mainly contributed by productivity growth after the mid-1990s when it has devoted more efforts to innovative activity. More importantly, I also systematically investigate how and to what extent various technological sources contribute to productivity growth in China. Identifying the internal and external technological sources, this paper adopts a newly developed technique of the stochastic metafrontier function to evaluate regional productivity growth in China and then analyzes the impacts of technological sources on moving up the technology ladder in China. The first-step estimation shows that the average productivity growth is 2.821% during 1996-2004, which is similar to that before 1995. However, the coastal and non-coastal regions witnessed an apparent difference in total factor productivity (TFP) growth, 4.567% vs. 1.718%. Concerning the effects of technological sources, in-house research and development (R&D), foreign direct investment (FDI) and technology import are all positive on significantly promoting productivity. Relative to R&D and FDI, the contribution through importing technologies seems to be larger, implying that China's technological progress relies heavily on more advanced foreign knowledge. However, neither technological source is found to have a larger influence on productivity growth among non-coastal regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]