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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]

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]

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]

Green finance initiatives are encouraged in the world to attain green economic milestones. Therefore, it is the centered area of research for the plethora of researchers across the globe. Instead of this significant transition to green finance, the study analyzed the Chinese data to explore the relationship between Green Finance, Green Technology innovation, and Environmental Performance from 2003 to 2022 in the Chinese context. We preferred the CS-ARDL and panel Quantile regression models for exploring our hypothesis and to examine the relationship of these variables. Our results validated that both green finance and green technology innovation have positive effects in both the long-term and short-term on the environmental performance in numerous Chinese cities. The statistical results showed that Green Finance and Green technology innovation reduce the amount of CO2 emission. Hence our results confirmed that both Green Finance and green technology innovations are significantly contributing to the environmental quality of China as the selected cities considered for the study investigation are considerably more driven towards green initiatives. This research also discussed the potential for implementing policy interventions in the future to leverage the adoption of green technology and make a significant impact on the world's environmental quality as China is the biggest emitter of CO2 emissions. The study places and puts forward valuable insights to the regulatory bodies that would likely help them in achieving sustainable milestones and would contribute to their long-term strategic landscape for the attainment of environmental objectives and heights. [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]

In this study, we examine the green innovation effect of investor preference on Chinese listed companies from 2008 to 2020. We observe that investors with environmental protection preferences can significantly increase enterprise green innovation. The baseline conclusions remain robust after we conduct multiple sensitivity tests, such as establishing a shift-share instrumental variable (Bartik IV), using the Heckman's two-step method, changing the regression methods, substituting the core variables, adopting the DID method, and considering investors' ownership. Our analysis shows that the green innovation effect of environmental investors is highly pronounced in companies with a high level of indebtedness and low managerial ability. We verify that environmental investors can improve the green innovation level of enterprises through two potential mechanisms, namely, easing corporate financing constraints and incentivising managers. In addition, political and public attention can strengthen the positive relationship between environmental investors and green innovation. [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]

In this paper, the STIRPAT model was developed to study the role of financial development in urban low-carbon economic transformation. The statistical analysis used data from 281 prefecture-level cities in China from 2009 to 2019. The results show that: (1) there is a positive U-shaped nonlinear relationship between financial development and urban low-carbon economic transformation. (2) Financial development not only directly affects the transformation of the low-carbon economy, but also indirectly affects it through three transmission channels: environmental regulation, industrial structure, and urbanization. (3) The financial development itself and the level of urbanization have a threshold effect on the transformation of the low-carbon economy. Under the threshold effect of environmental regulation and industrial structure, the role of financial development in the transformation of low-carbon economies presents a process of 'first decrease and then increase'. Therefore, improving the intensity of environmental regulation, implementing differentiated financial and industrial development policies, and controlling the urbanization process are effective measures to promote the transformation of low-carbon economies. [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]

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]

Corporate green technology innovation (GTI) is an effective way to solve environmental problems and achieve the goal of sustainable development. It is of great theoretical significance and strategic value to explore the influence of government behavior on corporate GTI. Based on institutional theory and attention theory, this study empirically examines the impact of government environmental attention (GEA) on corporate GTI by using data for China’s A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2021. We find that GEA can significantly promote corporate GTI, and there are four channels of action: strengthening environmental regulatory policies, increasing green investment, strengthening environmental information disclosure, and enhancing corporate social responsibility. Moreover, executive environmental experience, public environmental participation and social media attention positively moderated the impact of GEA on firms’ GTI. Heterogeneity analyses show that these positive effects are more significant in regions with low enforcement intensity, eastern regions, heavily polluted industries and state-owned firms. We also find that GEA can significantly enhance the efficiency and quality of GTI in enterprises, as well as encourage GTI among heavily polluting firms. GTI positively affects enterprise value, total factor productivity, and also improves enterprise environmental performance. Our results provide direct evidence from developing countries that GEA promotes GTI, and also provide theoretical support and decision-making references for further improving environmental policies and achieving sustainable development. [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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Coal-based cities, compared with others, are generally deemed to face double pressure from both emission reduction and economic development, indicating the great practical significance to explore high-quality development methods for China's goal of carbon neutrality. As previous studies have verified, technological innovation exerts the driving effect on total factor productivity, yet the impact mechanism between green innovational technology and carbon emission performance (TFCEP) of coal-based cities remains rather a blank area. Given this, the super-SBM model was applied to measure the TFCEP of 47 typical coal-based cities in China from 2013 to 2016. Furthermore, the econometric model was employed to analyze the impact mechanism of TFCEP. Finally, the heterogeneity effects of green technology within different regulation levels on TFCEP through mechanism analysis were revealed. The results indicate that: (1) The TFCEP of coal-based cities in the northeast, west and east regions is on the rise, while the central region shows a gradual decline trend. The relationship between TFCEP and urban development stage shows a U-shaped curve. (2) The heterogeneous effects of green innovational technology on TFCEP were revealed. The innovation compensation effect mainly occurs in coal-based cities with relatively loose environmental regulation level. the driving effect of green technologies featured by breakthrough innovations on TFCEP is greater than that of green technologies featured by conceptual design. (3) The openness has proved to be an important channel for green innovational technologies affecting TFCEP. Therefore, to advocate high-quality green development in coal-based cities, the government can choose to increase financial support for local green technology breakthroughs and reduce dependence on foreign technologies. [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]

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]

Understanding the implementation of environmental regulation is essential to the design of environmental policy. The impact of water pollution regulation on mortality was examined in this study using a spatial regression discontinuity (RD) design based on China's water quality monitoring system. Because water quality readings are important to the political promotion of officials and water quality monitoring stations only capture water pollution from upstream, local governments have an incentive to combat water pollution upstream, not downstream. Exploring this discontinuity in the stringency of regulations by linking the 2010 census microdata with water quality monitoring station location data in China, we found that households immediately upstream of a monitoring station faced a more than 11% reduction in household mortality compared to households immediately downstream of a monitoring station. Strict water quality supervision had a greater effect on mortality in rural households. The difference in mortality between upstream and downstream households was even greater for monitoring stations with high implementation and automatic monitoring technology. The results of this study improve our understanding of the health effects of environmental regulation, as well as the design and implementation of environmental regulation policies under a centralized political system. [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]

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]

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]

Agricultural carbon emission reduction is inseparable from discussions about government systems, especially in countries with distinctive institutional arrangements such as China. Environmental regulation may influence the impact of environmental decentralisation on agricultural carbon intensity. Using panel data from 30 provinces in mainland China from 2000 to 2015, this paper depicts the spatiotemporal pattern and dynamic evolution of environmental decentralisation, environmental regulation, and agricultural carbon intensity. It uses the spatial Durbin model to empirically study the internal connections between the three. The empirical results show that the enhancement of environmental decentralisation, environmental administrative decentralisation, environmental supervision decentralisation, and environmental monitoring decentralisation is not conducive to reducing agricultural carbon intensity. The results also show that the enhancement of the intensity of environmental regulation of "terminal governance type" and "front-end governance type" is conducive to reducing agricultural carbon intensity, but this effect has a negative "space spillover" phenomenon. Other findings are as follows: (1) the enhancement of the two types of environmental regulation intensity is conducive to changing the impact of environmental decentralisation on agricultural carbon intensity from a "grabbing-hand" to a "helping-hand"; (2) compared with balanced grain-producing and marketing areas and major grain-marketing areas, environmental decentralisation and two types of environmental regulations have a greater negative impact on the agricultural carbon intensity of major grain-producing areas. Therefore, the central government should change how it evaluates political performance; accelerate the construction of a diversified performance evaluation system; increase the weight of low-carbon, green, and other indicators that reflect the friendly development of agriculture in the system; and encourage local governments to adjust the direction of agricultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green investment is crucial to achieving the green transformation goal. Under increasingly strict environmental protection laws and regulations, whether it can induce the "Porter Hypothesis" effect and stimulate the green investment of enterprises is still controversial. This paper takes the China's new environmental protection law (NEPL) as a quasi-natural experiment, uses the green investment data of listed companies in China's heavy pollution industry, and applies the method of propensity score matching and difference-in-difference (PSM-DID) to verify whether the implementation of the law conforms to the "strong Porter Hypothesis." The results show that as a strict command-and-control environmental regulation tool, the implementation of NEPL has significantly promoted corporate's green investments in heavily polluting industries. The implementation of the NEPL guides to more standardized environmental disclosure regulation, stricter environmental enforcement, and severer financial constraints, and thus propel corporate's green investment. In addition, heterogeneity analysis indicates that the effect of NEPL is more significant in those samples of enterprises located in the regions with higher industrial concentration degree or with higher level of government environmental governance, enterprises of small and medium type, and enterprises with better financial performance and higher degree of equity incentive. To achieve the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, this paper provides evidence to test whether "Porter Hypothesis" is established in transition economies from the view of environmental investment and provides reference for how developing country can further enrich their environmental regulation system and optimize enterprise's environmental protection strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resource curse and environmental regulation are the key bottlenecks that hinder the sustainable development of the resource industry. A reasonable assessment of the decoupling relationship between resource supply, environment regulation and resource industry transformation is helpful to promote the decision-making of industrial restructuring in post-development regions. Taking Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China as the research object, panel data related to resources, environment and industry from 2010 to 2021 are selected to evaluate the spatial and temporal evolution of regional resource supply security, environmental regulatory pressure and resource industry transformation efficiency, measure the decoupling index among the factors, and use geographic detector technology to identify the constraints affecting factor decoupling. The results show the following: (1) the resource curse effect of Inner Mongolia is not significant, and some resource industries have prominent advantages; (2) the security of resource supply and the transformation efficiency of the resource industry show overall upward trend, the pressure of environmental regulation is basically balanced, and the development level of factors in resource-endowed regions and central cities is relatively high; (3) the spatial and temporal evolution of the decoupling relationship between resource supply, environmental regulation and resource industry transformation is uncertain, and the resilience of regional economic and social governance is poor; (4) resource endowment and resource industry advantages are the key that restricts the decoupling of factors, and the cumulative effect of ecological governance is likely to lead to the randomness of the decoupling of environmental regulation and resource industry transformation. In addition, this study suggests that the post-development areas should pay attention to the classification of resource industry relief, trans-regional economic and social collaborative governance and special resources exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the relationship between enterprise size and pollution abatement costs using firm-level datasets in China, where size-dependent distortions may exist in the distribution of enterprises of different sizes. We find that the pollution abatement costs decrease with enterprise size. Compared to the smallest size, the magnitudes of marginal decreases in pollution abatement costs per 1000 CNY of industrial output in the largest size are 3.29 CNY, 0.54 CNY and 2.60 CNY for gas, SO2 and dust, respectively. Moreover, we further explore the potential mechanisms for the decrease of pollution abatement costs from three perspectives: environmental protection-related investment, regulation intensity, and technological capability. Our findings suggest that the decrease in the intensity of environmental protection-related investment for large enterprises may be directly reduce the intensity of pollution abatement costs. Although large enterprises have low intensity of pollution abatement costs, this does not mean that they are subject to weaker environmental regulation. More importantly, we find that large enterprises may have more adoption of abatement technologies. For SO2 and dust, the pollutant removal efficiency of the largest enterprises is 4.92% and 1.82% higher than that of the smallest enterprises, respectively. Our results are robust to different specifications. These findings help us enact appropriate policies for enterprises based on their size, thereby improving the efficacy of pollution abatement and achieving the optimal level of pollution abatement for the entire society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the effect of the closure and relocation of chemical enterprises along the Yangtze River on housing prices in China. With a difference-in-differences (DiD) model and detailed data on polluting enterprises, house transactions, and environmental complaints, we find that environmental regulation led to a 1.7% increase in housing prices and a 43.3% reduction in perceived environmental risks, as measured by environmental complaints from surrounding residents. In addition, we observe a greater change in property values among taller buildings than among shorter buildings. This paper elucidates how developing countries can benefit from environmental regulation by influencing residents' risk perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to empirically investigate the impact of the carbon intensity constraint policy (CICP) on green innovation. Design/methodology/approach: This study takes the implementation of the CICP as a quasi-natural experiment and uses a quasi–difference-in-difference method to investigate the impact of the CICP on firm green innovation from a microeconomic perspective. Findings: The CICP significantly limits the quality of firms' green innovation. Among the range of green patents, the CICP distorts only patents related to CO2 emissions. The inhibitory effect is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises and heavily polluting firms. R&D investment and green investor are identified as the main mechanism. Practical implications: These findings provide evidence for the influence of the CICP on firm green innovation, which can guide policymakers in China and other emerging economies that prioritize carbon intensity constraint targets and the improvement of relevant auxiliary measures. Social implications: Governments and firms should have a comprehensive understanding of environmental policies and corporate behavior and need to mitigate the negative impact through a combination of measures. Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature by providing additional empirical evidence regarding the two opposing sides of the ongoing debate on the positive or negative effects of CICP. It also provides new evidence on the policy effect of the CICP on firm green innovation, together with its mechanisms and heterogeneous influences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the literature shows that stricter environmental regulations deter exports and inward foreign direct investment (FDI), few studies examine the impacts on outward FDI, especially for developing countries. In this paper, we analyse this issue in the context of China, which is the largest developing country in terms of FDI. We collect the transaction-level data of all the overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&As) by Chinese firms from 2000 to 2019. For the identification of the causal effect, we exploit the implementation of the Environmental Protection Law in 2015 as a quasi-natural experiment and carry out the difference-in-difference-in-differences analysis (DDD). The results show significant impacts of stricter environmental regulations on outward FDI. When the provincial emission reduction target increases by 10% points, the number of overseas M&A transactions in the high-polluting industries has increased by 32 every year since 2015. Moreover, the investments are more likely towards countries with better environmental protection. This suggests that firms aim at gaining cleaner technologies via M&As rather than transferring pollution abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of increasingly severe global climate change, finding effective carbon emission reduction strategies has become key to mitigating climate change. Environmental Protection Tax (EPT), as a widely recognized method, effectively promotes climate change mitigation by encouraging emission reduction behaviors and promoting the application of clean technologies. Based on data from 282 cities in China, this paper takes the official implementation of the EPT in 2018 as the policy impact and the cities with increased tax rates for air taxable pollutants as the treatment group and uses DID model to systematically demonstrate the relationship between the implementation of the EPT and carbon intensity (CI) and further explores the possible pollutant emissions and green innovation mediating effects. The findings show that (1) the implementation of EPT can effectively reduce CI by about 4.75%, and this conclusion still holds after considering the robustness of variable selection bias, elimination of other normal effects, policy setting time bias, and self-selection bias. (2) The implementation of EPT can reduce CI by reducing pollutant emissions and improving the level of green innovation. (3) There is obvious regional heterogeneity in the carbon reduction effect of EPT, and the implementation of EPT has a more significant effect on CI in medium-tax areas, low environmental concern areas, general cities, and eastern regions. This paper not only provides a new analytical perspective for systematically understanding the carbon emission reduction effect of EPT but also provides policy insights for promoting regional green transformation and advancing carbon peak carbon neutralization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The frequent occurrence of extreme weather events has imparted significant pressure on urban ecosystem management. Evaluating the relationship between extreme climate risk (ECR) and urban ecological resilience (UER) is a key issue in achieving the green and sustainable development objectives of cities. This study measures UER in China from 2005 to 2020 using the entropy weight method–TOPSIS method, investigates the relationship between ECR and UER using the dynamic GMM model, and further explores the influencing mechanism. The results suggest that ECR has an inhibiting influence on UER. Additionally, the moderating mechanism investigation demonstrates that environmental regulation can mitigate the threat of ECR to UER to a certain extent, and with the regulation effect based on the government's environmental concern being better than that of the market pollution fee payment. The group test outcomes demonstrate that the discrepancies in regions and marketization lead to certain differences in the relationship between ECR and UER. Additional investigation indicates that ECR has an asymmetric relationship with UER at distinct quantiles. Our findings reflect the subtle associations between ECR and UER as a whole, and will help relevant organizations in formulating more precise and scientific policies to enhance urban ecological resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the increased frequency of extreme weather events and the implementation of the China's dual-carbon target, thermal power companies have been under pressure to construct green infrastructure and to actively pursue low-carbon transformation in response to stricter environmental regulations. This research thus selects 30 listed thermal power enterprises in China as study objects and assesses their green investment efficiency in the low-carbon transition process using three-stage DEA evaluation model with environmental regulation as an exogenous variable. Based on this, a benchmark regression model is used to corroborate the relationship between environmental regulation and green investment. Simultaneously, we carry out analysis to compare the correlation between thermal power firms' green investment efficiency and their focus on green investments. The results show in terms of total efficiency that environmental regulation significantly improves the total efficiency of 80% of thermal power enterprises compared to the absence of this exogenous variable. With the addition of environmental regulation, firms' total efficiency declines gradually in general from 2018 to 2022, with the mean value of efficiency falling by 0.068. In terms of stage-specific efficiency, the efficiency of the green investment stage of the majority of firms is between 0.3 and 0.6, which is much lower than that of the operational stage and the market performance stage. In terms of sub-indicator efficiency, both green investment efficiency and social donation efficiency among thermal power enterprises show obvious polarization, with 30% of them having an efficiency of 1 and 30% less than 0.1. In terms of green investment focus, thermal power unit renovation has a more obvious role in boosting the green investment efficiency of thermal power enterprises than do wind power and photovoltaic projects. Therefore, both governmental departments and thermal power enterprises need to take active measures in order to achieve green transformation from the perspective of green investment efficiency. Through the segmentation of important projects of green investment, this paper provides a reasonable investment direction reference for the sustainable transformation of China's thermal power industry. It also provides a rich and novel theoretical basis for the Chinese government to further improve the relevant environmental protection laws and regulations of thermal power industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green agricultural development opens up a feasible way for China to construct sustainable communities and promote rural revitalization strategies. However, a clear gap on the subject sets apart various regions in China, resulting in off-balance development. This paper, based on the panel data from 31 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) in China from 2013 to 2020, established an evaluation index system for China's green agricultural development levels, measured the green agricultural development in different regions, and applied the log(t) model, the Ordered Probit model, and the Ordered Logit model to identify convergence trends and causes of China's green agricultural development level club convergence, respectively. Our research found the following: (1) The green agricultural development levels in various regions in China are on the rise, and regional gaps are still significant. The output of green agricultural products is the focus of various regions in promoting green agricultural development. (2) The green agricultural development levels in China's 31 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) have converged to four clubs. China is gradually forming a convergence pattern of green agricultural development levels, with the main agricultural production areas as the core. (3) The regional gap at the level of environmental regulation for green agricultural development first narrows, then expands, and then narrows. The intensity of environmental regulation in most areas is in the first stage. This indicates that China should continue to maintain the current intensity and promote green agricultural development levels to converge towards high-level clubs. In addition, the GDP, grain production area, fiscal support for agriculture, and rural human capital can narrow the gaps in green agricultural development levels between regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using panel data of 30 provinces and new energy (NE)-listed enterprises in China from 2011 to 2020, this paper uses basic model to research the impact of various environmental policies in China on NE industry development firstly. Then, using economic level as a threshold variable, a threshold model was constructed to research the impact of economic level on the relationship between environmental regulation and NE industry development. The research results show that firstly, various environmental policies in China have significantly promoted the development of the NE industry. This is mainly manifested in two aspects. One is environmental regulations significantly increased the NE industry output value and profit, the other is environmental regulations enhanced the NE industry growth potential. Secondly, the regional economic level has a significant impact on the relationship between environmental regulations and NE industry development. The promotion effect of environmental regulations on NE industry development depends on the regional economic level. When the regional economic level exceeds the threshold, the promoting effect of environmental regulations on NE industry development significantly increases. The reason is that a weak economic foundation will affect investment in the NE industry. Insufficient capital investment will inevitably seriously hinder the development of the NE industry. Thirdly, residents' education status, financial support, and NE industry agglomeration degree have a positive impact on the development of the NE industry, while population size has no significant impact on NE industry development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the potential benefits of positive environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance for enterprises operating in heavily polluting industries. Regression analyses using Stata were conducted on a sample of A-share listed enterprises in these industries from 2010 to 2020. The findings reveal that higher ESG performance leads to lower debt financing costs. Furthermore, the analysis of mechanisms indicates that the green innovation behavior of enterprises enhances the impact of ESG performance on debt financing costs. Heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that the ESG performance of heavily polluting enterprises in central China has a more significant influence on debt financing costs. For non-state-owned heavily polluting enterprises, the relationship between standard audit opinions is substantial, as audit opinions contain sufficient information and risk disclosure. This study contributes to our understanding of the economic implications of ESG performance and provides valuable evidence supporting enterprises in their efforts to improve ESG performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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As an effective means of addressing environmental externalities, market-based environmental regulation inevitably has potential effects on the economy. Based on Porter's theory, we investigate how emission charges affect firms' total factor productivity and explore the moderating role of firms' breakthrough technological innovation. Our findings reveal the moderating effect of breakthrough technological innovation on the total factor productivity enhancement of the emission fee by looking at Chinese A-share listed firms with heavy pollution from 2011 to 2020. Our mechanism tests suggest that emission fees and breakthrough technological innovation increase firms' total factor productivity by enhancing firms' green innovation. In addition, our heterogeneity analysis shows that emission charges and breakthrough technology innovation effectively increase total factor productivity only for state-owned firms, and the effect on total factor productivity of non-state-owned firms is insignificant. Our findings suggest that implementing market-based environmental regulations and incentives for firms to embark on breakthrough technological innovation effectively increases firms' total factor productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coupling coordination development of environmental regulation and scientific and technological innovation can provide strong support for economic growth and ecological civilization. This paper constructed the evaluation index system of environmental regulation and scientific and technological innovation, then measured the coupling coordination degree of environmental regulation and scientific and technological innovation in 30 Chinese provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) from 2009 to 2020, and finally analyzed the spatial and temporal distribution pattern of the coupling coordination degree. The results showed that the coupling coordination degree of environmental regulation and scientific and technological innovation in China showed an increasing trend, and the growth rate was characterized by "high in the west and low in the east". But the coupling coordination degree was low and had not yet reached the state of benign coupling coordination development. There are regional differences in the coupling coordination degree, with an overall spatial distribution pattern of "high in the east and low in the west, high in the south and low in the north". The high-level coupling coordination areas gradually expand from the eastern coast to the inland. According to the coupling coordination level and characteristics, Chinese provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) are divided into five categories, namely, innovation initiative mode, technological progress mode, environmental constraint mode, traditional passive mode and innovation lag mode, and it is proposed that environmental regulation should implement differentiated regional policies according to regional innovation capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the panel data of 275 prefecture-level cities in China in 2003–2019 and spatial Durbin model to verify the impact of environmental regulation and industrial agglomeration on air pollution. This paper finds that the enforcement intensity of environmental regulations (ER) is not consistent among cities. The effects of strict ER on air pollution in local city are the inverted-U-shape curve. The effects of more stringent ER in adjacent cities j on air pollution in city i are the U-shape curve. The more stringent ER in local city may lead to the decrease in agglomeration of manufacturing sectors (AM), thereby reducing air pollution. The polluting firms may shift production from neighboring cities j with stringent ER to city i with lax ER, thereby leading to the increase in AM, which aggravate air pollution in city i. The more stringent ER in local city i may lead to the increase in agglomeration of productive service industry (AS), thereby reducing air pollution. To avoid the transfer of polluting industrial sectors, the paper suggests that the more stringent implementation of ER should become nationwide actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chronology of China's legislation on controlling air pollution and water pollution is not equivalent, and firms may change their pollution inputs under environmental regulations. By examining a nationwide policy, China's Key Cities for Air Pollution Control, which aims to mitigate air pollution emissions, we find that although firms in regulated cities do manage to reduce their level of air pollution, they do so by installing "end-of-pipe" abatement equipment, which consumes a large amount of water and eventually increases water pollution. Thus, the ratio of water to air emissions increases by up to 15%. As pollution transfers from the air to water, this regulation-induced pollution substitution hinders the improvement of the overall environmental quality. Our results suggest that when evaluating the effectiveness of environmental regulation, abatement methods, especially "end-of-pipe" equipment, should also be taken into account to consider the pollution substitution effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From a spatial perspective, this paper constructs a spatial Durbin model based on the adjacent weight matrix to analyze the impact of environmental regulation on the development of renewable energy in 30 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) in China from 2007 to 2020. The results show that (1) both environmental regulation and renewable energy development have positive spatial autocorrelation and form relatively similar spatial agglomeration areas, specifically showing the characteristics of "high-high" agglomeration in resource-rich areas and "low-low" agglomeration in resource-scarce areas. (2) Environmental regulation significantly promotes the development of local renewable energy and has a significant spatial spillover effect on the development of renewable energy in neighboring provinces. (3) The moderating effect results show that renewable energy installed capacity and electricity demand play an inverse moderating role between environmental regulation and renewable energy development. (4) From the perspective of different regions, the impact of environmental regulation on the development of renewable energy is heterogeneous. Based on the research conclusions, this paper finally provides corresponding policy suggestions from three aspects: regional cooperation, technical support, and differentiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]