Abstract
This paper investigates the transmission of pressure between the public, relevant government departments, and industrial firms through the use of formal environmental regulations. The data include formal environmental regulations issued from 2005 to 2019 in 179 cities in 27 provinces in China. The intermediary effect model and the threshold effect model are used to carry out research studies on the relationships between public-participated environmental regulations, formal environmental regulations, and industrial-technological innovations. Results indicate that: (1) Pressure is transmitted between the public, and relevant government sectors and industries. For instance, public-participated environmental regulations pressure relevant government departments to apply strong formal environmental regulations on industrial sectors. (2) Labor and capital have a positive moderating effect on the effect of formal environmental regulations on industrial-technological innovations. (3) Both public-participated and formal environmental regulations promote industrial-technological innovations. (4) There is a threshold effect in formal environmental regulations. For instance, when the intensity of public-participated environmental regulations is higher than 93, the role of formal environmental regulations in promoting industrial-technological innovation can be completely maximized.
Highlights
The results indicate that Hypothesis 4 is true, confirming that formal environmental regulations have a mediating effect between public-participated environmental regulations and industrial-technological innovation
The results indicate that when the intensity of public-participated environmental regulation is lower than 94, the effects of formal environmental regulations on industrialtechnological innovation is not very significant
This paper used the intermediary effect model and the threshold effect model to construct a panel model based on the data of 179 cities from 2005 to 2019, and explored the nonlinear relationships between public-participated environmental regulations, formal environmental regulations, and industrial-technological innovation
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Under the influence of both information expansion and improvement of the public’s environmental knowledge, more people can better articulate a range of various environmental concerns and participate more actively in environmental protectionism [1] In this context, most forms of public participation in environmental regulation are expressing opinions on environmental issues, supervising and supplementing to the government’s environmental policies. The government must respond to public opinion and accept environmental pressure from society by implementing more efficient environmental policies. In this study on environmental regulations with public participation, the focus is on (1) public attention to environmental issues, (2) pressures of public participation on the government, and (3) how such pressures promote industrial-technological innovation through the intermediary effect model. It is hoped that future research can break through this limitation
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