Search

Global knowledge flows are not only important in promoting economic activities but also in addressing global environmental issues. In order to examine the mechanisms of how firms in emerging economies can learn from global partners in finding solutions to environmental challenges, we explore a rich data set covering nearly 190,595 Chinese firms and analyze the knowledge flows that local firms received from foreign firms in developing eco-innovations. We examine both knowledge flows in the same industry and those in the up- and down-stream industries, and, in particular, provide a nuanced consideration around the under-explored industrial conditions and regional institutions of technology spillovers and domestic eco-innovation. We find clear evidence that foreign green technology spillovers have a positive impact on the eco-innovation of domestic firms in China. This superior performance is particularly pronounced in certain industries (e.g., technology-intensive, pollution-intensive, and highly competitive) and cities with higher levels of environmental regulation stringency. Our results show that domestic firms differ significantly in the extent to which they benefit from global knowledge flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explore the interaction and spatial spillover effects between industrial agglomeration, environmental regulation, and high‐quality development of agriculture and rural areas, formulate appropriate industrial and environmental policies for different regions, guide the orderly agglomeration of agricultural sectors, and adjust the intensity of environmental regulation, which will help achieve high‐quality development. This manuscript firstly deconstructs the internal logic among industrial agglomeration, environmental regulation, and high‐quality development. Secondly, the Super‐SBM model is used to calculate the high‐quality development efficiency in rural China from 2000 to 2020. Finally, the Spatial Dubin Model (SDM) is used to analyze the spatial spillover effects and regional differences of industrial agglomeration, environmental regulation, and their integration impact on high‐quality development in rural China. The results show that: ① From 2000 to 2020, the high‐quality development efficiency shows a downward trend in fluctuation, and high‐quality development needs to be improved. ② There are significant regional differences in the effects of industrial agglomeration and environmental regulation on the high‐quality development efficiency. Industrial specialization agglomeration can effectively improve the high‐quality development efficiency, while industrial diversification agglomeration has uncertain effects. ③ The integration of environmental regulation and diversification agglomeration inhibits the high‐quality development efficiency, while the integration with specialization agglomeration has a stronger effect on improving high‐quality development efficiency. It is necessary to further enhance the effect of diversification agglomeration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy inequality has been a hot topic in academia. This study first measures energy inequality in 25 Chinese provinces, and then investigates the interaction between financial inclusion and energy inequality. We also explore the potential impact mechanism behind the relationship. The primary findings reveal that: (i) Financial inclusion can help reduce energy inequality in China; moreover, the impact of financial inclusion varies according to regional consumption levels and environmental regulation. (ii) Technological innovation plays an important role in enhancing the ability of financial inclusion to reduce energy inequality. (iii) Fiscal revenue and energy consumption structure are two significant mediating factors through which energy inclusion affects energy inequality. (iv) Digital financial inclusion (DFI) has an inverted U-shaped impact on energy inequality. Overall, this research provides important insights into the impact of financial inclusion and offers several practical implications for reducing energy inequality in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between environmental regulation and labor demand has been mixed. Few research studies have considered the impact of cross-regional environmental regulations on the labor market, even though this is notable. We adopted a geographic regression discontinuity (RD) approach to investigate the labor market impact of the cross-regional environmental regulation "2 + 26" Cities Special Emission Limit Program for Air Pollutants. We found that the policy significantly boosts the labor demand of polluting firms rather than a simple inter-industry transfer, mainly through increasing investment in fixed assets and cost offset mechanisms. Further analysis of the structure of labor demand shows that the increasing workforce is primarily low-quality labor accompanied by wage loss. The government should recognize the risks of welfare loss from low-quality work due to environmental regulation and direct polluting firms to innovate rather than reduce costs by increasing demand for low-quality labor. This facilitates a better understanding of the labor market response to environmental policy from the perspective of cross-regional environmental regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of bank branch expansion on macroeconomic and micro-firm behaviour has been one of the primary focuses in related research fields. However, research has thus far ignored the unintended impact of the increased availability of credit resources on firms' pollution emissions. Therefore, based on firm-level data in China, we explore the impact of the availability of credit resources on firm pollution reduction. The empirical results of this study are as follows. (1) Increased availability of credit resources to firms can significantly reduce pollution emissions. This finding remains robust after a series of robustness tests. (2) The possible path to reduced emissions is through increasing capital investment in production and technological innovation, rather than increasing capital investment in governance. (3) The market access policy for small and medium-sized commercial bank branches further strengthens the effect of credit resource availability on pollution reduction. And the reduction effect is more significant for firms facing strong environmental regulations and weak economic target constraints. These findings provide a new perspective for enterprises to reduce emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the tightening control over civil society in China in the last decade, environmental NGOs' participation in the regulatory process via legalized channels has increased. Drawing on participant observations, interviews, and court judgments, this article examines the recent dynamics of institutional participation of environmental NGOs through public notice-and-comment procedures and environmental public interest litigation (EPIL) in China. With stable opportunities for engagement, environmental NGOs have begun to turn themselves from peripheral actors into established players by helping identify and enforce violations, filling statutory gaps, and providing additional information and expertise in public notice-and-comment procedures and EPIL suits. While challenges remain, this article suggests that the practices of institutional public participation and changing citizen expectations hold great potential for promoting the pluralization of environmental regulation in authoritarian China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article employs asymmetric configuration theory and methods to investigate how technological innovation drives regional green growth in China's complex environment. Specifically, the pooled QCA method is employed to identify multiple driving paths for technological innovation-driven regional green growth. Three configurations for high green growth have been identified: (1) a configuration with high IRD (internal R&D), non-high GS (government support), non-high TM (technology market), and non-high ER (environmental regulation) as core conditions; (2) a configuration with high IRD, non-high NRD (non-R&D) and non-high ER as core conditions complemented by high TM; and (3) a configuration with high levels of IRD, ERD (external R&D) and TM, and non-high ER as core conditions. Furthermore, high IRD is essential for green growth, while strict environmental regulations may be detrimental. This article offers a theoretical basis for adjusting innovation strategies or improving relevant policies to promote green growth in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether command‐control environmental regulation can play a positive role in circumstances of imperfect market incentive‐based environmental regulation remains rarely explored. Using the difference‐in‐difference model, we find that command‐control environmental regulation can significantly improve the environmental performance of heavily polluting firms. This result still holds after a sequence of robustness tests. The analysis of the economic mechanism indicates that the new environmental protection law mainly contributes positively to the environmental performance of high‐polluting firms by improving the quality of their environmental investments and pollution treatment disclosures, and by reducing the government subsidies they receive to improve the environmental performance of high‐polluting firms. Meanwhile, the new environmental protection law has a more pronounced impact on heavily polluting enterprises in the eastern region, with imperfect internal control, stronger environmental regulations, more distant political connections, greater pressure on regional GDP growth and weaker industry competition. This paper confirms the effectiveness of the new environmental law in improving environmental performance of heavily polluting enterprises in pursuit of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, and provides new evidence to test the weak Porter hypothesis in the context of transition economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies on the employment effect of environmental regulations focus exclusively on regulated sectors, but labour demand in unregulated sectors can also be affected in a general equilibrium framework. Using the designation of Key Cities for Air Pollution Control in 2001 in China as a quasi-experiment, we employ PSM and DDD methods and find that the policy lowers employment in emission-intensive polluting firms, but it also increases employment in labour-intensive non-polluting firms, providing evidence of relocation of workers from regulated to unregulated industries. Evidence from city-level aggregate data suggests that the overall employment effect is minimal, and no evidence is found to suggest that workers move from the manufacturing sector to the services sector. The results are robust to a host of robustness checks. The finding implies that the job-killing effect of environmental regulations is over-stated, and non-polluting industries are not suitable comparison units in previous DID literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the perspective of configuration, this paper takes the region of manufacturing efficiency as the explanatory variable, selects eight antecedent conditions, and applies fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to study the paths and methods of improving manufacturing emission efficiency. The results of the study show that there are two configuration paths of carbon emission efficiency in manufacturing industry, namely, research frontier and technological innovation level and labour force structure, R&D investment, science and technology innovation level, manufacturing output value, and environmental regulation synergistic path. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of urban low-carbon governance on firms' capital-labor ratio. By treating China's low-carbon city pilot (LCCP) policy as an urban low-carbon governance instrument, we apply a difference-in-differences method (DID) and find that the LCCP program significantly reduces firms' capital-labor ratio, but the effect only manifests in state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The mechanism result demonstrates that to intensify urban low-carbon governance, local governments adjusted fiscal expenditure structure, resulting in SOEs employing less capital and more labor. This may be a business strategy adopted by SOEs to avoid environmental regulations, as we find that urban low-carbon governance significantly improves green technology innovation in non-SOEs, but not in SOEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of tightening resource and environmental constraints globally, it is urgent to promote enterprise's green technological innovation through environmental regulation. This paper uses the panel data of Chinese listed companies from 2009 to 2019 to empirically test the relationship between environmental regulation and green technological innovation, and it also explores the transmission mechanism of executive compensation between these two. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) environmental regulation can promote enterprise green technological innovation. (2) Environmental regulation negatively influences the enterprise green technological innovation by reducing executive compensation. (3) The effect of environmental regulation on the promotion of green technological innovation of enterprise is higher in coastal areas than inland areas of China; while the effect of environmental regulation on the promotion of green technological innovation of enterprise is higher in state-owned enterprises than others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Well-designed environmental regulations are a prerequisite for achieving green economic growth. However, the effectiveness of campaign-style environmental regulation—a widely used environmental management instrument in developing nations or even in some developed nations, on green economic growth remains under-researched and has not reached a consistent conclusion. This paper takes advantage of China's Central Environmental Protection Inspector policy—the strictest and largest campaign-style environmental regulation policy in China's history, as a natural experiment and uses the difference-in-differences method to explore the effect of campaign-style environmental regulation on green economic growth, and further analyze its underlying mechanisms and heterogeneity effects. The panel data covering 280 prefecture-level cities in China from 2009 to 2019 are used. Our results show that Central Environmental Protection Inspector can result in an average of 14.2% increase in green economic growth, and this effect is sustainable for a long time. Mechanism analysis shows that Central Environmental Protection Inspector boosts green economic growth mainly by promoting green innovation and optimizing industrial structure. Further heterogeneity analysis reveals that the positive effect of Central Environmental Protection Inspector on green economic growth is greater in eastern China and underdeveloped cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on measuring the green transformation of heavily polluting enterprises based on the sub-dimensions of green strategy and green action, we empirically analyze whether and how bank digitization affects the green transformation of enterprises by using the data of China's A-share heavily polluting enterprises from 2010 to 2021. The findings show that 1) bank digitization has a significant positive effect on firms' green transformation; 2) bank digitization promotes firms' green transformation by alleviating firms' financing constraints and improving firms' ESG performance; 3) governmental environmental regulations and media attention positively moderates the relationship between bank digitization and firms' green transformation; and 4) bank digitization is more likely to promote the green transformation of firms that are highly digitized, non-state-owned firms, and enterprises in the eastern region; 5) the sub-dimension test shows that bank digitization has significant differences on different dimensions of green transformation. The above analysis shows that bank digitization should be deeply integrated with the green transformation of enterprises, and the former should be deeply embedded in supervising, forcing and empowering enterprises to upgrade environmental protection technology and sewage treatment, and the regulator should formulate a more detailed environmental protection disclosure program to realize the consistency "words" and "deeds" of the green transformation of enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As environmental challenges escalate, green development is crucial for sustainability. This study analyzes China's county-level agricultural green total factor productivity using SBM and ML index, introducing a comprehensive index to quantify the impact of different types of environmental regulations on productivity. The findings reveal the following: baseline analysis reveals that comprehensive environmental regulation notably boosts agricultural green total factor productivity (AGTFP), with regulatory intensity positively linked to productivity growth. Other factors like policy intervention, industrial structure, savings levels, and per capita GDP also favorably impact productivity. All three types of regulations, command, incentive, and voluntary type, substantially enhance AGTFP. The mediating effect test results show that all three types of regulations directly and positively impact AGTFP. Indirect effects vary: command-type regulation's mediating effect through independent R&D is significant, accounting for 39% of the impact. For incentive type, both industry structure upgrading (23.79%) and independent R&D (3.1%) mediate the effect. For voluntary type, technological advancement via independent R&D mediates about 13.0% of the impact. Heterogeneity analysis reveals distinct impacts of different environmental regulations on AGTFP across regions. Command-type regulation is most effective in the west, while in the central region, both command- and incentive-type regulations have similar promotional effects. In the east, incentive- and voluntary-type regulations show stronger impacts. Robustness tests, including endogeneity testing, dependent variable substitution, sample winsorizing, and model substitution, consistently confirm the baseline finding that environmental regulation significantly boosts AGTFP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emissions, ecological pollution and a steadily rising global temperature have been widely acknowledged as the most severe risks to human survival in the last few decades. Alarming increases in global temperature and sudden climatic shifts are nature's way of warning us to curb the use of fossil fuels and adopt more sustainable practices. Therefore, the present study investigates the impact of financial stability, environmental regulations and uncertain economic policies on carbon emissions and investment in renewable energy. The study used a nonparametric DEA‐DDF technique to fulfil this objective using a balanced panel dataset comprising 28 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2021. Overall results demonstrated that financial stability reduces carbon emissions and accelerates investment in renewable energy projects. The findings imply that a financially stable economy like China encourages businesses to invest in cutting‐edge, environmentally friendly technology to boost productivity while reducing carbon emissions. Likewise, results show that stringent ecological regulations decrease carbon emissions and promote investment in renewable energy. Hence, stakeholders are keen to comply with environmental regulations in China to reduce carbon emissions by investing in renewable energy resources to avoid penalties. Finally, results suggest that uncertain economic policies increase carbon emissions and restrict access to credit from financial institutions for investment in renewable energy purposes in China. Findings imply that uncertainty in economic policies could lead to less environmentally friendly production practices that may increase carbon emissions and reduce the demand for renewable energy products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst growing environmental challenges linked to coal dependence, fostering green innovation in new energy enterprises is vital for sustainable development in China. Although there have been studies on green innovation of new energy enterprises in recent years, few studies have been conducted from the perspective of ESG, whether informal environmental regulation represented by ESG can stimulate the green innovation of new energy enterprises is of great significance to China's construction of a low-carbon and secure energy system. In this paper, from the perspective of informal environmental regulation, based on the ESG ratings of SynTaoGreen Finance's first public newenergy listed companies as an exogenous shock, and taking A-share new energy listed companies as a sample from 2010 to 2021, we empirically verified the effect and mechanism of ESG ratings on the green innovation of new energy companies in terms of the quantity and quality of green innovations by utilizing the Staggered Difference-indifference (DID) model. The findings demonstrate that new energy enterprises' green patent numbers and quality are greatly enhanced by ESG grading. However, there is clear heterogeneity in this green innovation effect, which is particularly visible in new energy firms with state-owned enterprise and greater enterprise scales and a higher level of digitization. The Mechanistic findings suggest that ESG ratings drive green innovation by alleviating financial constraints, reducing agency risk, and boosting R&D, thus providing empirical evidence for the development of a green innovation ecosystem in the new energy industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green technology innovation (GTI) and environmental regulation (ER) hold the key to promoting the transformation of industrial structure. Based on the regional panel data of China, this is the first study to explore the impact of GTI on the optimization of industrial structure (OIS) and rationalization of industrial structure (RIS) under various ERs. The results suggest that the influence of GTI on OIS and RIS features both heterogeneous environmental regulation effects and regional heterogeneity. Furthermore, command-controlled environmental regulation (CER) has a significant inhibitory effect on OIS. The threshold effects of ERs on OIS and RIS turn out to be significantly different when the panel threshold models are introduced, which also shows heterogeneity. Specifically, there are double and single threshold effects of MER and public participation environmental regulation (PER) on OIS, respectively. In comparison, there are single and double threshold effects of GTI on RIS under CER and PER, respectively. The results indicate that OIS and RIS are significantly correlated with GTI and the type and intensity of ERs. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen GTI to promote regional coordination and cooperation for green industrial transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To address the pressing issues of environmental deterioration and energy shortage that have accumulated in the extensive economic growth model, the Chinese government aims to enhance total factor productivity (TFP) by strengthening environmental regulations. The empirical findings on the impact of environmental regulation on TFP are relatively mixed. The literature exploring economic performance of different environmental regulations on TFP is scant; our study filled this gap and explored the microeffect of four categories of environmental policies on total factor productivity without considering natural factors and green total factor productivity (GTFP) considering natural factors based on China's provincial data from 2007 to 2017. The results illustrate that environmental regulation imposes a more significant positive impact on GTFP and different regulation policies can affect regional TFP through various paths. The administrative monitoring policies and public engagement policies exert more remarkable active effects on GTFP than other policies. Meanwhile, the existing environmental regulation promoted the sustainable development in the eastern and central areas, while failed to accelerate economic transformation in western area. Therefore, to better exert the incentive impact of green regulation on TFP, this study suggests that the government should enhance the eco-objective responsibility system, promote the marketization reform in resource areas, train more professional eco-friendly talent, foster public appreciation for nature conservation, and accelerate the industrial innovation of the midwestern regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a panel data set from 2007 to 2019, we empirically evaluate the impact of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technology innovation on green total factor productivity (GTFP). The findings show that (1) CCUS technology innovation significantly improves GTFP. (2) CCUS technology innovation significantly contributes to GTFP by promoting industrial structure upgrading and carbon emissions efficiency. (3) Environmental regulation plays a positive moderating role in the nexus between CCUS technology innovation and GTFP. The findings of this paper provide guidance for China to achieve green energy transition and build a green energy system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chemical oxygen demand (COD) emissions from the pulp and paper industry in China have declined continuously since the tighter COD discharge standards were implemented in 2008. Using firm-level data from 2003 to 2013, we investigate how China's pulp and paper firms would respond to the tighter COD discharge standards with a difference-in-differences design. We find that the tighter COD discharge standards have significant causal effects to induce the pulp and paper firms to reduce their COD emissions primarily through adopting cleaner production. However, the effectiveness of the tighter COD discharge standards depends on monitoring and enforcement activities as well as other regulations accompanying with the tighter COD discharge standards, all of which have become strengthened since China's 11th Five-Year-Plan (FYP, 2006–2010). While strengthened environmental regulations since the 11th FYP are from the top leadership of the Chinese government in order to deal with the increasing environmental degradation, the underlying driving force of the strengthened environmental regulations is from the household demand for better environmental quality as income increases. This study enriches literature not only on firms' responses to environmental regulations in developing countries but also on environmental regulations and technology adoption as well as environmental enforcement and compliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the Porter hypothesis posits that well-functioning markets and government regulations can promote enterprise innovation, it remains less clear in developing and transition economies. To address this gap, we utilize enterprise data from China’s A-share market between 2005 and 2017 to empirically examine whether implementing more stringent environmental regulation will prompt regulated enterprises to engage in rent-seeking or innovative behavior. Our findings reveal that regulated enterprises increase both their rent-seeking and innovation efforts in response to environmental regulation. Importantly, enterprises exhibiting lower levels of rent-seeking demonstrate more substantial increases in rent-seeking expenditure when confronting environmental regulation. Furthermore, we discover that state-owned enterprises are more inclined to implement innovative behaviors, while foreign enterprises significantly reduce their innovative activities. This study highlights the complex relationship between environmental regulation and enterprise behavior in developing or transition economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the interaction between corporate environmental responsibility (CER) and corporate financial performance (CFP). Moreover, the moderating effect of environmental regulation and internal control on this relationship is also examined. Based on the panel data of 790 China's A-shares listed companies of heavily polluting industries from 2006 to 2019, the results show that while CFP has a significant positive impact on CER, the positive impact of CER on CFP is not significant. Further analysis reveals that environmental regulation plays a positive moderating role in the impact of CFP on CER, and the positive impact of CER on CFP become significant in higher internal control quality firms. The results indicate that good environmental performance is a consequence of earlier good financial performance, and the costs of implementing sustainable and responsible projects are not always offset by revenues sufficient to generate increases in profit. Our findings suggest that firms should improve the quality of internal control and government should increase environmental supervision to achieve a virtuous circle connecting CER and CFP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the intensification of global ecological problems, corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues have attracted extensive attention from the investment community, and solving these issues is crucial for sustainable development. However, little is known about the research on equity structure reform on corporate ESG performance, especially state-owned capital on private firms' ESG performance. To this end, we utilize the panel data of 1,589 privately listed firms in China from 2013 to 2021 to explore the impact of state-owned capital on the ESG performance of private firms. The findings suggest that state-owned capital significantly improves the ESG performance of private firms. In addition, the results of mechanism analysis indicate that stateowned capital stimulates ESG performance through the dual path of improving the mitigation of external financial constraint problems and internal control environment problems. We also find that firms' external environmental shocks enhance the extent to which state capital injection into private firms enhances ESG performance, and these external environmental shocks include the strength of environmental regulation in the region, whether the firms' attribute is that of heavily polluting industries, and the strength of external media attention. In summary, our findings support the conjecture that state capital injection into private firms will be followed by enhanced ESG performance, and the external environment is a factor that influences this process. Our study may provide lessons for the sustainable development of private firms and dig deeper into the internal root causes and external shock factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the panel data of provincial units in China from 2000 to 2020, this paper uses the entropy method to calculate agricultural environmental regulation level in China from the perspectives of afforestation projects, water conservancy projects and environmental protection projects. Then, this paper calculates agricultural non-point source pollutant emissions in China by using the unit survey and evaluation method, and calculates agricultural green productivity growth in China by using the SBM directional distance function and Luenberger productivity index. On this basis, the influence of environmental regulation on agricultural green productivity growth in China and its mechanism are empirically analysed. The results show that:(1) During the sample period, agricultural environmental regulation level and agricultural green productivity growth increased significantly, while the emission density of agricultural non-point source pollution decreased significantly; (2) On the whole, environmental regulation significantly promoted agricultural green productivity growth in China, which was mainly reflected in the promotion of agricultural green technology progress change; (3) Environmental regulation can significantly promote agricultural green productivity growth in China through the channel of agricultural innovation investment. The innovation of this paper lies in the measurement of agricultural environmental regulation, and the analysis of the moderating effect of agricultural innovation investment on the impact of environmental regulation on agricultural green productivity growth in China. The research conclusions of this paper verify the 'Porter Hypothesis' theory in the field of agriculture, and have guiding significance for China to promote agricultural green productivity growth by relying on environmental regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous increase in global mariculture production and aquaculture areas, the environmental pollution caused by the mariculture industry is becoming increasingly serious. Faced with environmental issues, countries worldwide have formulated environmental regulations to scientifically intervene in marine environmental pollution issues and promote the green development of the mariculture industry. However, we must determine if strict environmental regulations can effectively promote the green development of the mariculture industry. This article uses the inter-provincial panel data of China's coastal areas from 2003 to 2019 as a sample. We use the entropy-technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution method to measure the intensity of environmental regulation in China's coastal areas and the level of green development of the mariculture industry. On this basis, an economic geography nested matrix was selected to construct a spatial panel econometric model to empirically explore the impact of environmental regulations on the green development of the mariculture industry. This approach also allows us to examine the heterogeneity of the impact of different types of environmental regulations on the green development of the mariculture industry. The research results indicate that environmental regulations have a "U-shaped" impact on the green development of the local mariculture industry, while they have an inverted "U-shaped" impact on the green development of the nearby mariculture industry. Furthermore, heterogeneity exists in the impact of different types of environmental regulations on the green development of the mariculture industry. Based on the research results, this article proposes policy recommendations from the perspectives of flexibly adjusting the intensity of environmental regulations, accelerating the development of voluntary-based environmental regulations, and regulating competition among local governments, which can provide decision-making references for the government to adjust environmental regulation policies and improve the level of green development in the mariculture industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Central Inspection for Ecological and Environmental Protection (CIEEP) and Environmental Vertical Management Reform (EVMR) policies have reshaped the relationships among stakeholders and the power structure in local environmental governance systems. To reveal the current local environmental collaborative governance mechanism, this study placed CIEEP and EVMR policies within the same research framework and considered multiple governance entities, including the central government, higher-level environmental protection departments, local environmental protection departments, enterprises, and the public, employing evolutionary game theory and numerical simulation techniques to explore the boundary conditions, key influencing factors, influence mechanisms, and realization paths of local environmental collaborative governance from a dynamic process perspective. The results show that: 1) The cost of enterprise environmental behavior, intensity of reward and punishment for enterprise environmental behavior, government subsidies, supervision cost of local environmental protection departments, and intensity of reward and punishment for local environmental protection departments all have important effects on local environmental governance; 2) Compared with the cost of enterprise environmental behavior, enterprise environmental behavior is more sensitive to changes in supervision cost of local environmental protection departments, and the intensity of reward and punishment for enterprise environmental behavior has the same major impact on enterprise environmental behavior as that of local environmental protection departments; 3) The influence of CIEEP policy on enterprise environmental behavior is unstable, showing signs of strategic response. Therefore, local environmental governance systems should be further optimized by encouraging local environmental protection departments to actively supervise and designing differentiated policy tools. This study provides a reference for solving local environmental governance problems under current environmental regulation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, digital transformation is having various impacts on enterprises around the world, including the green innovation. However, the current literature on the relationship between digitalization and green innovation in enterprises is scarce. What is the relationship between them, and whether heterogeneous environmental regulation has mediating effects, are questions that are worth exploring. Using a sample of listed manufacturing enterprises in China, this paper empirically tests the impact of digital transformation on enterprise green innovation. The results show that: (1) Digital transformation has a significant positive impact on green innovation, including green innovation output and green innovation capability. (2) Diverse environmental regulation may have mediating effects of digital transformation's influence on green innovation. (3) After a number of robustness tests, the conclusions are still valid. This paper can provide a reference for developing green development strategies for manufacturing enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decoupling of crop-livestock systems increases the risks of pollution, waste of nutrient resources, and biodiversity loss. Crop-livestock integration (CLI) is an effective solution to these problems, and motivating farmers to adopt CLI is the key. Many countries have implemented environmental regulations (ER) aiming to influence farmers' CLI adoption decisions. Based on a field study of 316 hog farmers from Shaanxi Province of China, this paper applies the triple-hurdle model to empirically examine the impacts of economic expectations (EE) and ER on CLI adoption decisions. It also verifies the income effect of CLI. The results are as follows: 90.5% of farmers are willing to adopt CLI, but the adoption rate is only 40.8% and the average integration degree is only 0.236; CLI not been widely popularized. EE and ER promote farmers' CLI adoption significantly, while the impact of interaction between EE and ER on CLI adoption differs. IER weakens the positive impact of EE on farmers' CLI integration degree, which has a "crowding out effect." GER negatively moderates the impact of EE on farmers' adoption willingness of CLI. CER strengthens the positive effect of EE on farmers' adoption behavior and CLI integration degree. CLI increases the farmers' income. These results contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms of CLI adoption decisions and sustainable policy optimization for green agricultural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last 20 years, China's steel production has proliferated, leading to increased environmental damage by releasing 574,000 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2), 1,114,000 tons of nitrogen oxide (NOx), and 897,000 tons of particulate matter (PM) in 2020; therefore, the country is now struggling to reduce carbon emissions and tackle climate change because of the conflicting demands of economic growth and environmental protection. Given the global emphasis on decarbonization and sustainable production, China has prioritized achieving peak carbon emissions of 30% by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. Likewise, China's steel industry is progressing toward attaining the maximum carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2025. This study reveals that despite a 321 Mt increase in global energy-related CO2 emissions in 2022, CO2 emissions in China experienced a decline of 230 Mt during the same period. Notwithstanding enacting several pertinent statutes and directives, China's iron and steel sector has not advanced substantially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst pressing global needs for environmental protection and sustainable development, the international community expects corporations to play a vital role, balancing profit pursuits with environmental responsibility. As the world's second-largest economy and a manufacturing giant, China's environmental governance and corporate models become a research centerpiece. Using the panel data of Chinese A-share heavy polluting industry listed companies from 2013 to 2020, and adopting the Linear-In-Means Model, this paper proposes for the first time that the corporate environmental financial integration is significantly influenced by the peer enterprises. Further research finds that: 1) Peer effect is more significant in private enterprises than state-owned enterprises. 2)The peer effect of environmental pollution integration of heavily polluting enterprises is sticky, mainly reflected in the effect of focus enterprises following peer enterprises to reduce their own environmental financial integration is stronger than the effect of following peer enterprises to upgrade synchronously. And this kind of stickiness is more significant in private enterprises. 3) The institutional pressure has a role in promoting the peer effect of enterprise environmental financial integration, and more significant in state-owned enterprises. Delving into the dynamics of Chinese enterprises in environmental management and financial strategies serves not only to excavate lessons from China's experience but also contributes to the global reservoir of wisdom on environmental protection and green development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Designed a micro-governance framework of multi-government environmental regulation (ER) synergy. • Developed a synergistic-based measure to quantify the degree of heterogeneous multi-government ER synergy. • Heterogeneous multi-government ER synergy has dissimilar impacts on corporate environmental responsibility (CER). • Financing constraints and executives' attention to CER play mediating roles in the mechanism. • The impact of multi-government ER synergy is heterogeneous among different types of firms. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) calls for enhanced global efforts to achieve the 17 sustainable development goals by 2030, highlighting the crucial role of corporate environmental responsibility (CER) in advancing global sustainability. As a significant participant, China is leveraging its government-led environmental regulation (ER) system, which has a multi-level and multi-sectoral structure, to effectively combat climate change. However, the effect of this ER system, especially collaborative efforts among multiple government subjects, on CER remains unknown. Thus, this paper is the first attempt to investigate the effect and underlying mechanisms of multi-government ER synergy on CER from the perspective of government subject synergy. Using a dataset of Chinese A-share listed manufacturing firms from 2010 to 2021, this study finds the following. First, multi-government ER synergy boosts CER. Direct ER synergy, stemming from joint policy-making across departments, encourages CER in end-of-pipe governance. Indirect ER synergy, arising from administrative hierarchy constraints among multi-level governments, fosters CER in front-end governance. Second, financing constraints and executives' attention to CER are two key channels through which multi-government ER synergy influences CER. Third, firms with political connections, those in heavily polluting industries, or those located in central and western regions adopt more proactive CER strategies under multi-government ER synergy. This paper expands research on government collaborative governance from the regional macro-perspective to the micro-firm level, providing valuable insights for countries worldwide, particularly emerging economies that share similar characteristics with China, to contain rapidly growing environmental challenges and advance global sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Realizing environmental protection and employment stability when facing strict environmental regulations is an essential issue of concern for many developing countries, including China. Based on a dataset of Chinese listed companies and a dataset of Chinese individual labor-force surveys, this paper uses an estimation technique pairing propensity score matching with a difference-in-differences estimator to examine the impact of the new Environmental Protection Law (EPL) on the supply and demand of labor at the micro level and the reallocation effect of interindustry labor at the macro level. The results show that the new EPL generated employment losses at the micro level. The policy reduces firms' labor demand by lowering firms' output and total investment expenditures and, in the process, does not stimulate firms' innovative behavior. Moreover, implementing the new EPL reduces the wage income of workers, which in turn reduces the labor supply. Conversely, at the macro level, the new EPL promotes the transfer of labor from polluting to cleaner industries, realizes the reallocation of labor between industries, and thus promotes the transformation and upgrading of regional industrial structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we aim to analyze the behavior of developed-country acquiring firms in dealing with Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions location choices at both national and sub-national levels with the impact of carbon risk and heterogeneous environmental regulations (Government, Civil, and Market Environmental regulations) and to explore their Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions performances under different situations. A sample of 874 intra-manufacturing Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions completed by developed-country acquirers and conducted in developed countries and China during 2002–2021 was analyzed using logistic regression and multiple linear regression. The results show that: (1) Acquirers with higher carbon risks tend to choose China rather developed country as the target location, while this relationship is not strengthened by the home country's high-level environmental regulations; (2) At the sub-national level, Chinese provinces' government environmental regulations cannot impede acquirers to enter; what's more, the civil environmental regulations even attract these acquirers, this is particularly the case if the acquirer has high carbon risk; (3) Acquirers with higher carbon risks can achieve more performance, no matter whether they choose China as the target country. Our findings add insight into the effect of carbon risks on companies' decisions and the unique characteristics of the heterogeneous environmental regulations in China. What's more, implications are provided for Chinese regulators and policymakers, e.g., listening to the public opinion, improving the governance quality, and attracting foreign investors to help domestic industry upgrading and maintain long-run economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the information era, effective environmental protection cannot be achieved without public concern. In this paper, public environmental concern (PEC) is subdivided into public concern about environmental pollution (PCEP), environmental regulations (PCER), and green behavior (PCGB). Based on the data set of the listed companies in China from 2011 to 2019 and the Baidu Index, we examine the influence of the three types of PECs on enterprises' environmental protection investment (EPI) in their different stages of the enterprise life cycle. It was found that three types of PECs have a significant impact on EPI, with PCER having the greatest effect. The impact of PEC varies at stages of the enterprise life cycle, and only in the growth stage, the three kinds of PECs play a significant role in promoting enterprises' EPI, while not in the maturity and the decline stages. Heterogeneity analysis shows that this positive effect is only significant for enterprises without ISO14001 certification and those in western China; PCER can significantly promote capitalized environmental investment, while PCEP can significantly promote expensed environmental investment. The findings can help to clarify the key role of the public in supervising the enterprises' environmental protection behavior and provide a decision-making basis for enterprises to dynamically adjust their environmental investment strategies in the whole life cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sheds light on the effectiveness of a concrete target-based performance evaluation system (TPES) for localities in enhancing local environmental enforcement in China. We conduct a difference-in-differences (DID) specification and exploit unique firm-level data to investigate the effects of the TPES on SO2 emission reduction through the Two control Zones (TCZ) policy. The results suggest that the TPES significantly reduces SO2 emissions of firms located at the TCZ cities, both in extensive and intensive margins. We also find that the treatment effects vary largely across enterprise sizes, ownership types, and local economic development. Our findings further verify how the long-standing distortions in the decentralized implementation of nationwide environmental regulations in China are remedied with a proper performance evaluation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two-part tariff (TPT) policy is implemented as an important initiative to accelerate the marketization of the pumped storage industry and promote its high-quality development. However, it is not clear exactly how the TPT policy affects the productivity of the pumped storage industry. Using the EBM-GML method and the DID model, this paper measures the total factor productivity of the pumped storage industry and explores the impact of the Two-Part Tariff (TPT) policy on its total factor productivity. Based on the samples of 16 provinces in China from 2004 to 2020, we find the following: (1) At present, the total factor productivity of China's pumped storage industry is still at a low level. (2) TPT policy can promote the improvement of total factor productivity, which was strongly supported by the robustness test. Innovation incentive is one of the main mechanisms. (3) The impact of TPT policy on total factor productivity has obvious regional heterogeneity. By geographic location, the TPT policy has little effect on the pumped storage industry's TFP in the eastern region, but it exerts a significant positive role in the central region. By energy affluence, TPT policy effect is stronger in provinces with low energy dependence. By environmental governance, the role of this policy is more obvious in provinces with low environmental regulation but developed green financial market. Finally, some corresponding policy implications have been put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the trend of synergistic development of digitalization and greening, this paper investigates the impact of enterprise digital transformation on audit fees and its mechanism, by using textual analysis and performing empirical tests on the data of Chinese listed companies from 2007 to 2021. It is found that enterprise digital transformation significantly increases audit fees, and green innovation partially mediates this process. The study results are robust, even after a series of robustness tests. When financing constraints and environmental regulations are low, the mediating role of green innovation between digital transformation and audit fees is more significant. In addition, green innovation has a stronger mediating role between the use of underlying technology and audit fees, while green substantive innovation has a stronger mediating role between digital transformation and audit fees. This study investigates the effect of enterprise digital transformation on audit fees from the standpoint of green innovation. It offers a new perspective on how accounting firms make audit pricing decisions, provides guidance for enterprise digital transformation and green innovation, and gives an opportunity for China to promote the synergistic transformation and development of digitalization and greening to achieve the dual-carbon goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The government's environmental protection policy can significantly contribute to alleviating resource shortages and curbing environmental pollution, but the impact of various policy instruments implemented by the government on energy efficiency is unclear. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2021, this paper analyses the impact of environmental regulation and the industrial structure on energy efficiency from the perspective of resource taxes. The U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and energy efficiency and between the optimization of industrial structure can significantly improve energy efficiency, and the optimization of industrial structure is conducive to weakening the initial inhibitory effect of environmental regulation. In addition, the analysis of regional heterogeneity showed that the impact of environmental regulation was stronger in the central and western regions, while the impact of industrial structure was stronger in the eastern and western regions. The conclusions of this study can help to expand the understanding of the relationship between environmental regulation and industrial structure on energy efficiency, provide policy enlightenment for the realization of green development and high-quality development, and provide Chinese examples and experiences for developing countries to improve energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the existence of the pollution halo hypothesis in China. To realize the goals, an urban green development efficiency measuring framework was established applying SBM directional distance function and Malmquist-Luenberger index. Using linear panel model and nonlinear panel model and data of 284 cities in China from 2008 to 2019, we have found that the pollution halo hypothesis does exist in China because FDI increases urban green development efficiency. The mechanism analysis of introducing environmental regulation indicates that the impact of FDI on urban green development efficiency presents a 'U-shaped' feature. The implementation of strict environmental regulation can significantly increase the positive impact of FDI on the urban green development efficiency. In addition, the analysis of regional heterogeneity has shown that when the environmental regulation intensity exceeds the turning point, FDI in eastern and central China plays a significant positive role in urban green development efficiency, while that in western China is inhibitory effect. Our empirical results have suggested the Chinese government should further utilize the positive role of FDI in urban green development, including gradually and orderly implementing strict environmental protection regulatory policies, and implementing green energy conservation transformation projects for energy intensive industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coordinated efforts to reduce haze and carbon emissions are important in promoting global climate governance and sustainable development. In this paper, based on prefecture-level data of China from 2005 to 2019, we investigate the impact of environmental regulatory intensity on the emissions of the concentration of PM2.5 and carbon dioxide (CO2). The research indicates that environmental regulation facilitates synergistic governance for PM2.5 reduction and carbon mitigation. Green technological advancement emerges as the primary mechanism through which environmental regulation achieves haze reduction and carbon mitigation. This conclusion remains robust after a series of robustness tests. Furthermore, the results from quantile regression reveal that the haze reduction and carbon mitigation effects of environmental regulation are subject to certain conditional dependencies. Environmental regulation exhibits a significant negative impact on carbon emissions across various quantile points. However, their influence on different quantile levels of PM2.5 concentration displays an asymmetric pattern. Finally, threshold regression findings suggest that there is no significant threshold effect of environmental regulation on CO2 emissions, but there are dual threshold effects on the PM2.5 concentration. Therefore, it is recommended that local governments judiciously implement environmental regulatory intensity, establish interregional policies for haze reduction and carbon mitigation, and fully harness the driving force of green technology to promote a comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More attention has been paid to environmental regulation of greenhouse gas emissions in the energy industry under the transformation of industrial structure. This paper takes microdata of Chinese energy enterprises from 1998 to 2012 as a sample to build a duty-sharing model, analyzes the effect of environmental regulations on the industrial chain, and explains the "double growth" phenomenon that occurred in China, which is nothing short of miraculous in terms of the environment and economy. In the industrial chain, the environmental obligations and responsibilities will be shared between upstream and downstream enterprises due to trade linkages. This paper finds that environmental responsibilities will move forward through the industrial chain when environmental regulations are strengthened. Downstream companies will loosen "relative" control constraints, thereby expanding output but increasing demand for upstream products. Different from the existing research, we claim that, since environmental regulation has a differential effect on the industrial chain, it will promote the growth of output in the entire chain, in contrast to the theory of "cost compliance", which claims that environmental regulation will inevitably lead to the output. Based on this research, this paper puts forward some suggestions and insights on how the government implements environmental regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial development has greatly promoted China's economic growth. Under the dual pressure of resources and the environment, high-quality economic development has become an inevitable requirement of China's new era. Under the new development pattern of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, which is 'to step up conservation of the Yangtze River and stop its over-development,' it is of great significance to explore the transmission mechanism of the impact of environmental regulations on the economic belt's high-quality economic development. Based on the panel data of 108 cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2005 to 2019, this paper constructed an index system of high-quality economic development and verified the mediation effect of environmental regulations on its high-quality economic development by using the mediation effect model. Intermediate variables, including technological input and industrial structure, were used. In addition, the dynamic threshold model was used to verify the impact of environmental regulations on high-quality economic development under different threshold variable levels. The results found that: (1) The results of the mediation effect test showed that both technological input and industrial structure had a partial mediation effect in the impact of environmental regulations on high quality economic development. Environmental regulations helped to improve the level of technological input and optimize the adjustment of industrial structure, which in turn had a positive impact on the quality of economic development. (2) The results of the threshold model showed that when technological input and industrial structure were the threshold variables of environmental regulations, environmental regulations had a threshold effect on high quality economic development. In regions with high technology input and a backward industrial structure, environmental regulations could better promote high quality economic development. (3) The results of the heterogeneity of the threshold effects showed that a temporal heterogeneity existed in the threshold effects of technology input and industrial structure variables and that factors such as the policy orientation of technological inputs and the rigidity of industrial structure affected the implementation effect of environmental regulation policies. Based on the above conclusions, the following policy recommendations are put forward: (1) Formulate differentiated environmental regulation policies and promote the effective implementation of environmental regulation policies. (2) Improve the level of technological input and provide new impetus for high-quality economic development. (3) Optimize industrial structure, and accelerate the green development and transformation of industries. (4) Clarify the mechanism of environmental compensation and special governance, and promote the synergistic development of regional economy and environmental regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the logistics industry's green total factor productivity (LGTFP) is a key source of power to achieve its high-quality development (HQD) in China. Technological innovation (TI) and environmental regulation (ER) policies are vital factors that affect the improvement of LGTFP. Although the impact of ERs or TI on LGTFP has been extensively researched, few studies have examined their combined effect. This study utilizes panel data from 30 Chinese provinces during 2006-2020 to estimate LGTFP using the Epsilon-based measure and global Malmquist-Luenberger index. Moreover, this study employs a dynamic spatial Durbin model to explore the influence of TI on LGTFP and its spatial spillovers, as well as the modulatory effect of ER in the relations between TI and LGTFP. The results show that (1) China's LGTFP displays positive spatial spillovers and is influenced by the preceding period's level. (2) In the short term, an improvement in TI levels had a positive effect on local LGTFP, but negative spillovers on neighboring districts. Nevertheless, in the long run, an improvement in TI levels had a notably negative influence on local LGTFP but positive spillovers on adjacent regions. (3) ER had an "inverted U-shaped" modulatory roles with spatial spillovers on the relations between TI and LGTFP in the long-term. These discoveries offer valuable insights into the coordinated development of TI systems and ER policies, enabling the formation of a policy system that aligns with the logistics industry's HQD in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental regulations in China's hog industry aim to adjust industrial layout and reduce pollution. However, these regulations have had an unexpected impact, resulting in varying degrees of hog production decline across regions. This study, is exploring how environmental regulations affect lost hog production in multiple ways through increased supervision and penalties, differentiation of enforcement agents, and indiscriminate closure of farms with non-livestock production areas. Subsequently, employing the Difference-in-Difference approach, we empirically test the effects of these regulations on the hog industry using a unique panel of national county-level hog production data. Our results demonstrate an unexpected decline in hog production, primarily observed in the two key production areas. This suggests that China's hog industry has not experienced a dominant industrial layout adjustment in response to environmental regulation. These findings underscore the need for more precise regulatory standards and stronger enforcement bodies in China's future reforms, with an emphasis on central rather than local-based regulation. This approach is critical for maintaining stable production while reducing pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The behaviors of local governments can affect the enforcement of environmental regulations. Environmental regulation can influence the behaviour of energy-intensive enterprises. This paper examines the relationship between local government competition, environmental regulation and the investment efficiency of high energy consuming firms using a basic panel regression and moderating effects model based on data from 2011-2020 for high energy consuming firms in China. The paper found that local government competition and environmental regulation can promote increased investment efficiency in energy-intensive firms in the short term. However, environmental regulation is not beneficial to investment efficiency in the long run. Local government competition plays a positive moderating role in the impact of environmental regulation on the investment efficiency of high energy consuming firms. There is a threshold effect on the role of local government competition. When the level of government competition exceeds 2.097, it has a negative impact on the investment efficiency. We further test for heterogeneity and we find that this promotion effect is also more obvious in areas with high environmental taxes and low marketability. Finally, we provide constructive suggestions for the development of government and the improvement of the investment efficiency of high energyconsuming firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with the promotion of China's green development strategy and the policy of financial services to the real economy, how financialization affects corporate green innovation becomes an urgent issue to be explored. Using Chinese A-share listed enterprises from 2007 to 2020, this study empirically analyzes the impact of financialization on corporate green innovation and its underlying mechanism, and the moderating effect of heterogeneous environmental regulation is examined. Results show that financialization significantly inhibits corporate green innovation, and the command-and-control environmental regulation is more effective in weakening the inhibiting effect of financialization on corporate green innovation than market-incentivized and public-participation environmental regulation. Moreover, mechanism analyses show that financialization inhibits corporate green innovation mainly by affecting innovation input and financing constraints. Extended analyses show that the inhibiting effects of financialization on strategic and substantive green innovation of enterprises are not significantly different, but the inhibiting effect of financialization on independent green innovation is significantly higher than that on joint green innovation. In addition, the inhibiting effect of financialization on green innovation is more significant in non-heavy polluting industries and regions with high regulatory pressure. This study reveals the negative effects of financialization on corporate green innovation from a micro-finance perspective, which not only helps to improve the internal investment decisionmaking mechanism of companies and the regulatory system of corporate financialization, but also has some insights to guide the practice of green innovation of real enterprises and promote the green transformation of economic development mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researches on the Porter hypothesis have paid more attention to the effect of the external constraint force of environmental regulation on green total factor productivity (GTFP), while ignoring the effect of internal force of market competition on GTFP. Using the panel data of Chinese manufacturing industries, this paper measures China's GTFP with the global frontier MML index which is based on the EBM model. The paper then studies the effect of environmental regulation and market competition on GTFP. The combined effect of environmental regulation and market competition on enhancing GTFP is further investigated. The results are as follows: 1) The GTFP of the manufacturing industry has progressed during the study period and the progress of green technology plays a crucial role in promoting GTFP improvement. 2) The environmental regulation and market competition both have an obvious nonlinear effect of U-type on GTFP. Relying solely on the external constraint force of environmental regulation or the internal force of market competition does not promote the improvement of GTFP quickly. 3) As for the combined effect, improving market competition is beneficial to the positive effect of environmental regulation on GTFP. Market competition and environmental regulation show a significant combined positive effect, accelerating the arrival of environmental regulation inflection point. Thus the rapid improvement of GTFP requires the combined effect to be effectively exerted. However, only when the level of environmental regulation is strong or the level of market competition is high can a combined positive effect appear. The conclusion provides China with a meaningful reference for better implementing the policy of environmental regulation and market-oriented reforms to promote green economic transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving carbon productivity is of great significance to China's "30 · 60" carbon target, while the development of the digital economy is a driving force for green transformation. However, few studies discuss the relationship between the digital economy and carbon productivity. We investigate the influence of digital economic development on carbon productivity using panel data from 30 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2020. Spatial econometric and moderating effects are considered. The results show that (i) digital economy has a positive direct and negative spatial spillover effect on carbon productivity, and this conclusion is still valid after the robustness test and endogeneity test; (ii) digital infrastructure has a greater impact on carbon productivity than digital industrialization and industrial digitalization; (iii) the mechanism analysis shows that environmental regulation negatively moderates the relationship between the digital economy and carbon productivity; (iv) heterogeneity analysis shows that the effect of the digital economy on carbon productivity is more obvious in the central region compared to the western region, while it is not significant in the eastern region. Overall, this paper not only provides a new analytical perspective for understanding the improvement of carbon productivity in the digital economy but also provides policy inspiration for promoting carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking the implementation of digitalization in prefabricated constructions (DPC) as an exogenous shock, this study utilizes provincial panel data of China from 1997 to 2019, and uses the difference-in-differences model to identify the causal effect of DPC on carbon emissions in the construction industry (CECI). This study shows that DPC effectively reduces CECI with the results withstanding rigorous testing, including parallel trend tests, placebo tests, and a heterogeneous time-varying treatment test based on Bacon decomposition and the DIDm approach. The mechanism test confirms that DPC reduces CECI through two channels, which are improving existing building technologies and promoting better management capabilities. At the same time, further analyses show that the carbon emissions reduction effect of DPC is more pronounced in regions with a higher degree of marketization, financial development, human capital and environmental regulation. This study contributes to understanding the underlying mechanisms between DPC and CECI, providing new insights for the deeper integration of digital technologies and the construction industry. It offers new avenues for revitalizing the construction sector and facilitating achieving global carbon emissions reduction goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]