Does air pollution collaborative governance promote green technology innovation? Evidence from China

Can green bonds empower green technology innovation of enterprises?

Green bonds, a new green financial instrument, encourage enterprises to achieve high-quality development through green technology innovation. However, a lack of research is currently being conducted into the effect of green bond issuance in China. Can green bonds effectively empower enterprises to green innovation? What is the underlying mechanism? In the context of carbon-neutral strategies, it is significant to answer these questions scientifically. This paper uses a quasi-natural experiment of the launch of the green bond market in China in 2016 to conduct empirical studies based on the panel data of 1 558 non-financial Chinese-listed enterprises from 2015 to 2020 with the multi-period difference-in-difference model. The results show that ① issuing green bonds can significantly empower enterprises' green technology innovation. The empowering effect is mainly for green utility patents rather than green invention patents. This result remains after dynamic heterogeneity analysis, placebo test, and other tests. In addition, the effect has a lag. ② Heterogeneity tests show that this empowerment effect varies across enterprises with different property rights, industries, and regions. ③ In terms of the mechanism of action, green bonds can enhance enterprises' ability to innovate green technology by increasing the proportion of long-term loans and improving their debt structure. This paper broadens the relevant literature on the economic consequences of green bonds and the influencing factors of enterprises' green technology innovation and provides policy suggestions for further improving the analysis of green bonds.

Does environmental regulation lessen health risks? Evidence from Chinese cities

Introduction

Atmospheric pollution is a severe problem confronting the world today, endangering not only natural ecosystem equilibrium but also human life and health. As a result, governments have enacted environmental regulations to minimize pollutant emissions, enhance air quality and protect public health. In this setting, it is critical to explore the health implications of environmental regulation.

Methods

Based on city panel data from 2009 to 2020, the influence of environmental regulatory intensity on health risks in China is examined in this study.

Results

It is discovered that enhanced environmental regulation significantly reduces health risks in cities, with each 1-unit increase in the degree of environmental regulation lowering the total number of local premature deaths from stroke, ischemic heart disease, and lung cancer by approximately 15.4%, a finding that remains true after multiple robustness tests. Furthermore, advances in science and technology are shown to boost the health benefits from environmental regulation. We also discover that inland cities, southern cities, and non-low-carbon pilot cities benefit more from environmental regulation.

Discussion

The results of this research can serve as a theoretical and empirical foundation for comprehending the social welfare consequences of environmental regulation and for guiding environmental regulation decision-making.

Measuring the urban-rural and spatiotemporal heterogeneity of the drivers of PM2.5-attributed health burdens in China from 2008 to 2021 using high-resolution dataset

Urbanization has been considered a driver of PM2.5 pollution and the attributed health burden. This study systematically measured the spatiotemporal and urban-rural heterogeneity of PM2.5-attributed health burden drivers, including income, population, baseline mortality rate, and PM2.5 level. The results reveal the significantly positive contribution of disposable income and the periodical and urban-rural differentiation of population contribution to PM2.5-attributed health burden. The difference in driver performance due to socioeconomic development and urbanization stages might be an important determinant for different or even opposite results of previous studies. Policymaking for mitigating PM2.5-attributed health risk could incorporate the re-assessment and driver determination for PM2.5-attributed health burden into the construction and development plan from the overall urbanization perspective. The urbanization-perspective driver decomposition could be synergized with the flow analysis, equality evaluation, and policy benefit estimation to achieve further direction-determining and quantitative assessment of the urban-rural PM2.5 health risk management strategies.

The impact of heterogeneous environmental regulation on high-quality economic development in China: based on the moderating effect of digital finance

Under the new normal of economic growth, implementing environmental regulation policies and developing digital finance have become essential factors affecting high-quality economic development. This study aims to examine whether environmental regulation has a positive effect on high-quality economic development and what impact digital finance has in the process of environmental regulation affecting high-quality economic development. This study uses the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2019 to measure the high-quality economic development by using the entropy-TOPSIS method based on constructing an indicator system for high-quality economic development. Then, environmental regulations are classified into four categories: economic, command based, legal, and supervised, and digital finance is included in the analysis framework. The impact of heterogeneous environmental regulations on high-quality economic development and the indirect influence mechanism played by digital finance are empirically analyzed. The results show that command-based environmental regulation significantly hinders improving economic development quality. In contrast, supervised environmental regulation plays a significant positive role and can therefore serve as an essential driver of high-quality economic development. In addition, digital finance plays a significant positive moderating role in the influence of environmental regulation on the economy's high-quality development level. After the robustness test, the conclusion is still valid. Further heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of environmental regulation on high-quality economic development and the moderating effect of digital finance differ across dimensions of economic quality development and have regional heterogeneity. The research findings are conducive to formulating appropriate environmental regulation policies and giving full play to the positive role of digital finance, providing support for promoting high-quality economic development.

Balance between Smog Control and Economic Growth in China: Mechanism Analysis Based on the Effect of Green Technology Innovation

The balance between smog pollution (SP) control and economic growth (EG) is currently a major problem facing China's development. Green technology innovation (GTI) is an effective way to promote ecological civilization and realize green development. Thus, whether GTI can facilitate a win-win situation of SP control and stable EG is an important issue of academic concerns. In this paper, the mechanisms of the role of GTI, SP and EG were systematically demonstrated. The corresponding research hypotheses were proposed. Based on the data book of 278 Chinese cities from 2008 to 2020, the effects of GTI on SP and EG were systematically investigated using the econometric estimation method of dynamic spatial panel simultaneous equations. The results show that GTI can reduce SP directly, or indirectly by promoting EG. Although GTI can promote EG, EG may be inhibited due to GTI-induced SP reduction. Inter-regional SP showed significant spatial agglomeration characteristics. EG had significant spatial correlation effects. GTI in neighboring regions can also facilitate local SP control. Further analysis shows that compared with green utility model innovation (GUMI), green invention and innovation (GII) had a more significant effect on reducing SP and promoting EG. In addition, the analysis of the comprehensive effect of GTI on SP and EG shows that GTI can achieve the overall balanced development of SP prevention and EG regardless of GTI types.

Is air pollution detrimental to regional innovation? An empirical heterogeneity test based on Chinese cities

Nowadays, innovation seems to be the inevitable choice to achieve stable economic growth. However, the negative impact of air pollution on health and economy makes air pollution an important factor in regional innovation, which deserves our discussion. The overall regional innovation level from 2014 to 2019 has an upward trend, while the overall air pollution has a downward trend during the period, which provides foundation for our research. Based on the data of 285 prefecture-level cities in China from 2014 to 2019, this paper uses the fixed effect and mediation model to verify the impact and mechanism of air pollution on regional innovation. The results show that the increase in air pollution, measured by the air quality index, significantly inhibits regional innovation. Air pollution has significant funds crowding-out effect and human capital loss effect, thereby decreasing the regional innovation level, which means innovation funds and researchers play a conductive role between air pollution and regional innovation. In heterogeneity analysis, it is found that the detrimental effect of air pollution on regional innovation is significant in eastern and central China, in large- and medium-sized cities, and in cities with poor or general air quality. It indicates that developed and large-scale regions should pay more attention to air pollution control. For polluted regions, more emphasis and endeavors are needed to address air pollution problems. Besides, the inhibitory effect is more severe on incremental innovation rather than on radical innovation, which deserves the attention of enterprises engaged in incremental innovation. Therefore, we propose that targeted environmental policies and effective measures should be developed to improve air quality in the long run. Moreover, policymakers could provide strong support for innovation grants, talent subsidies, and rewards and encourage clean technological innovation through short-term trade-offs between heavily polluting and low polluting enterprises.

Digital Economy, Environmental Regulation and Corporate Green Technology Innovation: Evidence from China

Background: As human beings enter the digital age, the impact of the digital economy on environmental regulation and corporate green technology innovation (CGTI) is expanding. In order to effectively strengthen the efficacy of environmental regulation and improve the green technology innovation ability of corporate, this paper conducts in-depth research on the influence process of the digital economy and environmental regulation on the CGTI. Methods: Based on the mediating variable environmental regulation, this paper explores the influence process of the digital economy on CGTI. Combined with empirical analysis methods such as the fixed-effect model, mediating effect model, spatial model and regression analysis, the authors reveal the influence process of the digital economy on CGTI. Results: The digital economy can directly promote the improvement of the green technology innovation level of CGTI. The digital economy can indirectly affect the CGTI through the mediating variable of environmental regulation, marginal effect and spatial spillover effect. Conclusions: The digital economy and CGTI had a significant spatial correlation among different regions in China. In different regions of China, there are significant differences in the relationship between the digital economy, environmental regulation and CGTI.