Impact of environmental regulations on green total factor productivity: based on the perspective of technological progress bias.

In the context of achieving the 'dual carbon' goals of peaking carbon emissions and carbon neutrality, meeting emission reduction targets while ensuring stable economic growth is the economic development model China is seeking now. Therefore, exploring the mechanism of environmental regulation in China's economic growth, especially on technological progress, will help to analyze the mechanism of environmental policy on sustainable economic development. In this article, we used the SBM model to measure the green total factor productivity in the subdivided industries of the manufacturing industry in China from 2003 to 2018, and decomposed technological progress to examine the factor preference characteristics of biased technological progress, and finally used a panel regression model to empirically test the mechanism of environmental regulations on green total factor productivity and technological progress and their decomposition terms. The results showed that: 1 Green total factor productivity in China's manufacturing industry was generally increasing year by year, and technological progress was the main source of its growth. Environmental regulation showed an inverted U shaped relationship with green total factor productivity and technological progress, and the intensity of regulation was currently on the left side of the inflection point, and the increase in environmental regulation intensity helped to promote the growth of green total factor productivity and technological progress in China's manufacturing industry. 2 From the internal influence mechanism of technological progress, the results of biased technological progress factor preferences showed that the characteristics of input-biased technological progress factor preferences changed with the stage of economic development, and output-biased technological progress was more biased toward CO2 output, but it showed an improving trend year by year. The effects of environmental regulations on input-biased technological progress, output-biased technological progress, and scale technological progress were all significant, and the increase in the intensity of environmental regulations helped to enhance input-biased technological progress and reduce output-biased technological progress so as to save the input of production factors and reduce CO2 output. 3 The degree of opening to the outside world, capital intensity, and government subsidies all had positive effects on green total factor productivity and technological progress, and strengthening these factors could help to improve the economic development of the manufacturing industry. The study found that current technological progress had a certain 'carbon lock-in' effect on carbon emissions, and environmental regulations were not effective in reducing coal use. By measuring the current situation of China's manufacturing economy and the effect of environmental regulations, this study provides theoretical support for promoting China's green and high-quality economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]