The impact of international talent on environmental pollution: Firm-level evidence from China

Abstract

Environmental pollution affects people's quality of life and health. Improving environmental awareness and developing green technologies are the key measures to solve the pollution problem. Combining the pollution emission database of Chinese industrial enterprises and the survey data on the scale of international talent inflow, we empirically test the impact of international talent influx on corporate pollution emission behavior and its influence channels. We have found that increasing the scale of international talent inflow significantly reduced the intensity of corporate pollution emissions, and the potential channels are to promote corporate technological progress, improvement of environmental protection concept, and export higher-quality products. Heterogeneity analysis found that the inflow of international talents has a significant inhibitory effect on the pollution emission intensity of enterprises in high human capital intensity and high pollution intensity industries, and talents from developed countries are more conducive to reducing the pollution emission intensity of enterprises. This paper proves that attracting international talents is an effective way to improve environmental pollution and achieve green and sustainable development.