Abstract
Since environmental problems are becoming increasingly prominent, macro policies and social development have placed higher requirements on manufacturing enterprises to promote green transformation and upgrading (GTU) in China. Considering that different manufacturing enterprises choose different green technology innovation levels for GTU under environmental regulation, a game model between manufacturing enterprises and the government is constructed. The relationship between the green technology innovation level (GTIL) and the environmental regulation intensity is analyzed. Through numerical examples, the influences of environmental regulation and consumer preference on system decisions are further examined. Moreover, an econometric model is constructed to explore the influence that the environmental regulation exerts on the GTIL using panel data from the Chinese manufacturing industry. Our results show that the increase in environmental regulation intensity contributes to improving GTIL and promoting the GTU of manufacturing enterprises. Furthermore, as the environmental regulation is enhanced, the sales price decreases, benefiting consumers. Consumers’ preference for high-GTIL products is conducive to GTU under environmental regulation. Empirical analysis shows that there is a U-shaped relationship between environmental regulation and the GTIL. Only when the intensity reaches a threshold can the environmental regulation be beneficial to improve the GTIL and promote the GTU of Chinese manufacturing enterprises.
Highlights
Rapid economic development has caused tremendous pressure on the environment
Im-Pesaran-Shin (IPS) unit-root test is conducted for explanatory variables, and it is found that labor input and industrial structure level have unit-roots
The fixed effects regression model is employed to examine the effects of environmental regulation on green technology innovation level (GTIL), controlling year fixed effects and provinces and cities fixed effects
Summary
Rapid economic development has caused tremendous pressure on the environment. Environmental Performance Index shows that as leaders in emerging economies, China and India are ranked 120th and 177th, respectively, in terms of environmental quality. In China, the total manufacturing energy consumption of the manufacturing industry accounted for about 54.7% of the total annual energy consumption in 2017, according to the statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Chinese governments promised the world and the public that they have been committed to upgrading from a manufacturer of quantity to one of quality, so the green transformation and upgrading (hereinafter referred to as GTU) of manufacturing enterprises are crucial. GTU refers to the fact that manufacturing enterprises should pay attention to the upgrading of production technology, research, improve and innovate existing production technology, and strive to ensure the efficient, clean, low-carbon, and. Public Health 2020, 17, 7680; doi:10.3390/ijerph17207680 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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