Abstract
The inconsistent direction between environmental regulation and technological progress is receiving increasing attention, but scholars have neglected the relationship between the two in the open economy. Against this background and based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2003 to 2015, we examined the effect of environmental regulation on the international research and development (R&D) spillover effect and its regional differences in three economic regions: The Bohai Rim, Pan-Yangtze River Delta, and Pan-Pearl River Delta economic regions. The results show that (1) at China’s macro level, and at that of the three economic regions, the level of environmental regulation and international R&D spillover from import trade or foreign direct investment channels show an inverted N relationship; that is, in all provinces the weak environmental regulation initially inhibited the international technology spillover. However, as the intensity of environmental regulation increased, the level of international R&D spillovers continually rose, but overly harsh environmental regulation was not conducive to the overflow of international technology; (2) the adoption of different environmental regulations will affect the international R&D spillover effect and the inverted N relationship of environmental regulation, thus changing the inflection point of environmental regulation; and (3) currently, the level of environmental regulation is relatively low, as most provinces have not yet broken through the first turning point of the inverted N, and only a few provinces are within the rising stage of the inverted N curve. This paper provides corresponding policy suggestions according to the above conclusions.
Highlights
Since the reform and opening up of China’s economy in December 1978, the environmental problems caused by the country’s extensive economic growth are attracting increasing global attention [1,2,3]
As the timespan of the panel data used in this paper was relatively short, and the unit root process was small, it was not necessary to consider the stability of time series
All the models show that the regional development level (LnED) has a positive effect on international research and development (R&D) spillover in the control variables, indicating that the awareness of environmental protection by enterprises and residents is higher in the regions of high economic development
Summary
Since the reform and opening up of China’s economy in December 1978, the environmental problems caused by the country’s extensive economic growth are attracting increasing global attention [1,2,3]. The signing of the International Framework Convention on Climate Change and the finalization of the Paris Agreement have shown that governments, while striving to increase the level of economic development, must consider environmental protection [4,5,6]. Many developing countries hope to learn of the advanced technology in developed countries through the international R&D spillover effect and improve their technical level. In this context, whether environmental regulation will suppress the international R&D spillover effect is a question worth exploring
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