Nonlinear effect of industrial robot applications on carbon emissions: Evidence from China

Abstract

In the digital age, most state-of-the-art research has investigated the influence of industrial robot applications (IRAs) on labor and income distribution, but its environmental impact remains underexplored. This paper uses regional panel data in China from 2006 to 2017 to explore the nonlinear effect of IRAs on carbon emission (CE), as well as its optimal conditions by using fixed effect model with quadratic term and threshold regression model, respectively. The results show that: (1) An inverted U-shaped relationship was verified between IRAs and CE, which means when the IRAs exceed a certain threshold, carbon emissions will be curbed. (2) IRAs accelerate the advance of the inverted U-shaped turning point by improving the factor allocation efficiency and optimizing industrial structures. (3) The CE reduction effect of IRAs depends on the scale of the highly skilled labor force, digital endowment and environmental regulation intensity in the region. These conclusions not only broaden the theoretical horizon of existing effects of IRAs in the environmental fields, but also provide practical implications to maximize the carbon reduction effect in IRAs.