Government R&D Subsidies, Environmental Regulations, and Their Effect on Green Innovation Efficiency of Manufacturing Industry: Evidence from the Yangtze River Economic Belt of China.

Ming Yi,Yao Zhang,Modan Yan,Lina Fu,Yiqian Wang

doi:10.3390/ijerph17041330

Abstract

The Yangtze River Economic Belt is the most important manufacturing economic belt in China. The level of manufacturing green innovation efficiency of the Yangtze River Economic Belt directly affects the overall competitiveness of China’s manufacturing industry. With panel data from 11 provinces and cities along the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China for the period of 2008 to 2017, this paper applies the slacks-based measure (SBM)-data envelopment analysis (DEA) model and panel Tobit model to conduct an empirical study of the effects of government research and development subsidies and environmental regulations on the green innovation efficiency of the manufacturing industry of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The results show that, firstly, government R&D subsidies and environmental regulations are both conducive to improving the green innovation efficiency of the manufacturing industry of the Yangtze River Economic Belt; secondly, because of the fact that the interaction terms between government R&D subsidies and environmental regulations failed to pass the significance test, the positive moderating effects of R&D subsidies on environmental regulations and green innovation efficiency of the manufacturing industry are not obvious; thirdly, in terms of control variables, strengthening agglomeration is the only factor that is positively correlated with green innovation efficiency improvement of the manufacturing industry. Enterprise scale and industrial structure have negative effects on green innovation efficiency improvement, and the openness of economy has no correlation with green innovation efficiency.

Highlights

At present, the concept of green innovation has become a hot topic because of a tense practical need for sustainable development
If we study the impact of Research and Development (R&D) subsidies and environmental regulations on manufacturing green innovation efficiency (MGIE) from only one perspective, endogenous problems may arise, which may have a certain impact on the accuracy of the research and the effectiveness of the policy promulgation and implementation
According to the results of MGIE in China’s Yangtze River Economic Belt, it can be found that the truncation characteristics are obvious

Summary

Introduction

The concept of green innovation has become a hot topic because of a tense practical need for sustainable development. Green innovation is equivalent to ecological innovation, or environmental innovation, among others, and is considered to be an innovative activity involving process, system, and service, through which sustainable development aims can be achieved by reducing environmental damage and natural resource consumption. Green innovation plays a role in achieving sustainable development goals (EIO [1]). Green innovation is not just about new green technology, it covers various kinds of innovations, such as new products, new processes, new services, new business models, and so on (Kemp and Arundel [2]; Rennings [3]; Kemp and Pearson [4]). Public Health 2020, 17, 1330; doi:10.3390/ijerph17041330 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

Results

Discussion

Conclusion