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The objective of this paper is to explore how environmental protection expenditures (EPE) affect innovation and investigate the potential causal relationship between the two variables. The novelty and main contribution of our paper to the literature stems from the fact that we look at total environmental protection expenditures from both the public and private sectors, and distinguishing between corporations and households in the private sectors. We also consider both inputs and outputs of innovation and address potential endogeneity issues in this relationship, which are both lacking in the current literature. Using a panel of EU countries over the period 2006–2020, this study generally finds a positive impact of EPE on innovation after controlling for the effects of trade, credit, education and inflation on innovation, and using the System GMM estimator to treat endogeneity. Moreover, EPE from the government sector drives the bulk of this positive impact. The core results are robust to alternative measures of innovation, alternative estimation techniques that address endogeneity (i.e., the Lewbel 2SLS, Mundlak, and Hausman-Taylor estimators) and the moderation effects of Climate Change Performance (CCPI). This study also provides a useful guide to policy makers engaged in environmental planning. • We evaluate the impact of environmental protection expenditures (EPE) on innovation in mainly EU countries. • We use longitudinal dataset for the group of EU countries over the period 2006–2020. • We find a positive impact of EPE on innovation. • The results are robust for observable heterogeneity, alternative measures of innovation and estimation techniques. • This study provides a useful guide to policy makers engaged in environmental planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental issues are closely related to the economic development of human society, and reducing environmental pollution during production is of great significance for environmental protection. This paper utilizes data from Chinese industrial enterprises (2001–2010), and establishes a fixed effects model to examine whether minimum wage standards are important in reducing non-clean energy consumption by enterprises. The results indicate that an increase in the monthly minimum wage leads to a significant reduction in coal consumption by firms, while the change in the hourly minimum wage do not exert a statistically significant influence on coal consumption by firms. The above empirical results remain robust after conducting a series of endogeneity tests. The mechanism test shows that innovation and exports serve as mediating variables between the minimum wage and coal consumption. Specifically, raising the minimum wage can incentivize enterprises to innovate in production and expand their exports, resulting in a decrease in the consumption of non-clean energy. Finally, through the heterogeneity test, we observe that increases in the minimum wage have varying effects on coal consumption among firms with different numbers of employees and different ages. Based on the research findings of this paper, we propose that the government should comprehensively consider and improve relevant systems, formulate scientifically-based minimum wage standards, take into account both workers' rights and interests as well as enterprises' profits, actively promote energy transformation in enterprises, and ultimately achieve long-term development of the social environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the imminent water crisis era and stringent water environment management, enterprises play a vital role in environmental governance. However, there is seldom analysis on how the water environment regulation influences an enterprise's innovation due to data deficiency. Using our database from 2000 to 2022, we combine geographic information from water quality monitoring stations with the data on listed companies in China to pinpoint what distance firms are exposed to the monitoring stations. Results from a spatial regression discontinuity design along the geographic distances demonstrate that water environmental regulation has a significant positive impact on the quantity and quality of enterprise innovation. This paper found that it is primarily driven by the decreased usage of intermediate goods, rising industry profits from the exit of low-productivity firms, and enhanced enterprise research and development (R&D) investment. Furthermore, the positive impact is more pronounced for privately-owned firms, firms closer to suppliers, polluting firms, and politically unaffiliated firms. Our study offers scientifically valuable insights for emerging market countries in formulating effective water environmental regulation policies to incentivize firms to innovate in environmental protection. Additionally, it provides novel ideas on synergizing water environmental regulation and firm innovation to foster a mutually beneficial relationship between environmental protection and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]