Role Of Environmental Regulation Research Articles

The influence of environmental regulations on business innovation, intellectual capital, environmental and economic performance

Currently, there are two main trends in the field of corporate environmental management regarding the role of environmental regulations in corporate environmental and economic performance. The first trend examines environmental regulations such as barriers or risks of corporate operations since they increase the adaptation and compliance costs which negatively influence their competitive advantage. The second trend examines the potential positive effects of environmental regulations on firms’ operations like reduction in operational costs, creation of intellectual capital and enhancement of economic performance. In this debate, this paper examines a set of hypotheses to analyze the relationships between environmental regulations and various aspects of corporate performance. Hypotheses are tested by utilizing information disclosed in a sample of 100 sustainability reports published by 25 firms in the metal products sector over a four-year period. To collect all the necessary non-financial information a methodological framework was used which is based on a scoring system and a set of indicators derived from GRI guidelines and the relevant literature, while well-known financial indicators were used to assess firms’ economic performance. The findings show positive relationships between the environmental performance and the level of corporate compliance with environmental legislation as well as between corporate environmental innovation and environmental performance. There is also a positive correlation between the level of corporate compliance with environmental legislation and components of green intellectual capital.

The nexus between economic growth, energy use, international trade and ecological footprints: the role of environmental regulations in N11 countries

The nexus between economic growth, energy use, international trade and ecological footprints: the role of environmental regulations in N11 countries

Determinants of CO2 emissions in European Union countries: Does environmental regulation reduce environmental pollution?

There is no doubt that economic growth is one of the main drivers of pollution. Climate change, caused by increased emissions, has harmful and irreversible effects on economies as a whole. This paper intends to contribute to the current debate on the factors that help reduce emissions, by presenting empirical evidence on the role of environmental regulation in this process. Specifically, this research aims to fill a gap in the literature by focusing on the effects on carbon dioxide emissions of market-based regulations, regulatory policies to incentivize the deployment of renewables, and foreign direct investment. To accomplish this objective, it uses yearly data from 1995 to 2017 for 17 European Union (EU) countries. To control for potential endogeneity, and to study the short- and the long-run effects individually, an Autoregressive Distributed Lag model was used with a Driscoll–Kraay estimator. The main findings show that environmental regulation is effective in cutting CO2 emissions in the long-run. Additionally, policies supporting renewable energy sources tend to reduce CO2 emissions in both the short- and long-run. The effectiveness of these policies is further demonstrated by a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions due to foreign direct investment, suggesting that the EU is successfully attracting high-quality and innovative investment. The pollution halo hypothesis was also validated for EU countries.

The Impact of Urban Transportation Infrastructure on Air Quality

While previous study has confirmed significant correlation between infrastructure construction and air quality, little is known about the nature of the relationship. In this paper, we intend to fill this gap by using the Panel Smooth Transition Regression (PSTR) model to discuss the nonlinear relationship between transportation infrastructure construction and air quality. The panel data includes 280 cities in China for the period 2000-2017. We find that the transportation infrastructure investment is positively correlated to the air quality when the GDP per capita is below RMB 7151 or the number of motor vehicle population per capita is below 37 (vehicles per 10,000 persons) where the model is in the lower regime, and that the transportation infrastructure investment is negatively correlated to the air quality when the GDP per capita is greater than RMB 7151 or the number of motor vehicle population per capita is larger than 37 (vehicles per 10,000 persons) where the model is in the upper regime. The empirical results of the three sub-samples, including eastern, western and central regions, are similar to that of the national level. Furthermore, increasing transportation infrastructure investment is conducive to improving air quality. Urban bus services, green area, population density, wind speed and rainfall are also conducive to reducing air pollution, but the role of environmental regulation is not significant. After adding the instrumental variable (urban built-up area), the conclusions are further supported. Finally, relevant policy recommendations for reducing air pollution are proposed based on the empirical results.

Dynamic environmental regulation threshold effect of technical progress on China’s environmental pollution

The impact of technical progress (TP) on environmental pollution (EP) has been extensively studied, but the lag effect of EP and the role of environmental regulation (ER) in the impact of TP on EP have been neglected. Firstly, under the premise of considering the lag effect of EP, this paper established dynamic panel threshold models to empirically analyze the nonlinear dynamic ER threshold effect of generalized technical progress (GTP) and narrow-sense technical progress (NTP) on EP. Secondly, the system generalized method of moments estimation was used to investigate whether the impact channels of GTP and NTP on EP under different ER were smooth. Finally, from the perspective of ER, this paper analyzed the spatiotemporal characteristics of GTP and NTP on EP. The empirical results are as follows: Firstly, there is a nonlinear dynamic ER threshold effect of TP on EP. When the intensity of ER crosses the threshold, the suppression effect of GTP on EP would be stronger than that of NTP. Secondly, the impact of GTP on EP is greater than that of NTP, and when the intensity of ER crosses the threshold, the increase of the impact of GTP on EP is greater than that of NTP. Thirdly, when ER is in the low-level interval, the impact channels of TP on EP are not smooth, but when the intensity of ER crosses the threshold, some impact channels have been opened. Finally, the inhibitory effect of TP on EP has been strengthened for a long time, the western regions have achieved better results in reducing EP by improving TP compared with the central and eastern regions.

Spatial Heterogeneity Influences of Environmental Control and Informal Regulation on Air Pollutant Emissions in China.

High air pollutant emissions in China have become serious environmental issues threatening public health. While spatial heterogeneity plays an important role in environmental regulation in China, it is necessary to analyze the spatial heterogeneity influences of air pollution control policies and informal environmental regulation on air pollutant emissions in China. Based on the quantification of air pollution control policies, this paper incorporates the central government’s policy formulation and local government’s policy implementation into the intensity of air pollution control policy. This paper uses the panel data of China’s 30 provinces to examine the spatial impact of air pollution control policy and informal environmental regulation on air pollutant emissions. The results show that (a) air pollutant emissions represented by soot and dust emission intensity has a significant positive spatial spillover effect; (b) air pollution control policy and informal environmental regulation play significant inhibitory roles in air pollutant emissions; (c) informal environmental regulation has a negative moderating effect on the negative relationship between air pollution control policy and air pollutant emissions. Other implications for environmental management have also been discussed.

Woody Plant Species Composition, Population Structure and Carbon Sequestration Potential of the A. senegal (L.) Willd Woodland Along a Distance Gradient in North-Western Tigray, Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, dry land vegetation including the fairly intact lowland and western escarpment woodlands occupy the largest vegetation resource of the country. These forests play a central role in environmental regulation and socio-economic assets, yet they received less scientific attention than the moist forests. This study evaluated the woody plant species composition, population structure and carbon sequestration potential of the A. senegal woodland across three distance gradients from the settlements. A total of 45 sample quadrants were laid along a systematically established nine parallel transect lines to collect vegetation and soil data across distance gradients from settlement. Mature tree dry biomass with DBH＞2.5 cm was estimated using allometric equations. A total of 41 woody plant species that belong to 20 families were recorded and A. senegal was the dominant species with 56.4 IVI value. Woody plant species diversity, density and richness were significantly higher in the distant plots compared to the nearest plots to settlement (p＜0.05). The cumulative DBH class distribution of all individuals had showed an interrupted inverted J-shape population pattern. There were 19 species without seedlings, 15 species without saplings and 14 species without both seedlings and saplings. A significant above ground carbon (5.3 to 12.7 ton ha-1), root carbon (1.6 to 3.6 ton ha-1), soil organic carbon (35.6 to 44.5 ton ha-1), total carbon stock (42.5 to 60.7 ton ha-1) and total carbon dioxide equivalent (157.7 to 222.8 ton ha-1) was observed consistently with an increasing of distance from settlement (p＜0.05). Distance from settlement had significant and positive correlation with species diversity and carbon stock at 0.64** and 0.78**. Disturbance intensity may directly influence the variation of species composition, richness and density along the A. senegal woodland. The sustainability of the A. senegal woodland needs urgent protection, conservation and restoration.

Reformulating the tourism-extended environmental Kuznets curve: A quantile regression analysis under environmental legal conditions

This work aims to empirically study the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in a model that takes into account the tourism sector. We use two novel approaches in this framework: an own developed environmental legal index and an instrumental quantile regression methodology. Our study comprises 18 Latin American countries between 1995 and 2013. We have found that tourism activity causes carbon emissions increases but, because of the restrictions imposed by environmental regulations, further tourism activity can mitigate these adverse environmental effects, mainly in high-polluted countries. These results suggest a step forward in the tourism-extended EKC estimations: they indicate the need for analysis considering the heterogeneities in environmental conditions across countries and the role of environmental regulation within this framework.

Influence of environmental regulation on promoting the low-carbon transformation of China’s foreign trade: Based on the dual margin of export enterprise

Abstract Environmental protection and international trade are main issues related to human development and well-being. Under the dual pressure of pollution control and foreign trade restructuring, environmental regulation is essential for achieving results in environmental protection and trade transformation. This study analyzes the influences of environmental regulation on the low-carbon transformation of China’ foreign trade from the perspective of export enterprises’ dual margin. Under the framework of profit maximization, this study establishes a simplified dynamic discrete choice model to study the two-stage decision-making process of export enterprises and the role of environmental regulation. Based on data from Chinese industrial enterprises, this study uses the Heckman model to evaluate the impact of environmental regulation on trade volume and structure. Our principal conclusions are as follows. First, environmental regulation may restrain the export-extensive and -intensive margin, where the negative effect on pollution-intensive enterprises is stronger than that of clean ones. Second, the type of ownership may affect the effectiveness of environmental regulation. In addition, survival analysis shows that environmental regulation will shorten the export duration for enterprises, especially for pollution-intensive ones. Results show that the negative effect of environmental regulation on pollution-intensive firms is stronger than that on clean enterprises. Therefore, government departments in China should improve and develop environmental policies and further strengthen environmental monitoring capabilities to achieve the structural adjustment and low-carbon transformation of China’s foreign trade.

CO2 emissions, renewable energy, and environmental regulations in the EU countries.

This paper analyzes the factors explaining the slight decrease of CO2 emissions in the European Union (EU), recorded during the last period. With a focus on 12 EU countries, we apply a panel data analysis over the period 1990 to 2017 and we investigate the impact of renewable energy share in energy production, and the role of EU environmental regulations, in explaining the level of CO2 emissions. Our static and dynamic panel data analysis points to a negative impact of an increased renewable energy share on CO2 emissions, while there is no clear evidence about the role of environmental regulations. It appears that the 2020 climate and energy package contributed to the reduction of pollution level, while the ratification of the Kyoto protocol by the EU countries had no significant influence. At the same time, our findings validate the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis and the pollution halo (PH) hypothesis, showing that foreign companies export eco-friendly technologies. Our results prove to be robust regarding the use of static fixed and random effects models, of two-stage least square models and the use of difference and system generalized method of moments (GMM) frameworks.

The Role of Environmental Regulation and Technological Innovation in the Employment of Manufacturing Enterprises: Evidence from China

With the increasingly severe emission reduction pressures, it is an inevitable choice for China to improve the intensity of environmental regulation. At the same time, the impact of technological innovation on enterprise employment may lead to some new changes under the environmental regulation constraints. However, existing studies have not included environmental regulation into the theoretical framework of technological innovation and enterprise employment, nor has the influencing mechanism of environmental regulation and technological innovation in the employment of manufacturing enterprises been explored. This paper uses the panel data of listed manufacturing companies in the A-share market of Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2011 to 2017 to examine the impact of environmental regulation and technological innovation on the employment of manufacturing enterprises, and explore their influence mechanisms in a theoretical framework based the moderating effect model. The findings demonstrate the following: First, the technological innovation has a positive creative effect on enterprise employment. Second, the impact of environmental regulation on enterprise employment is significantly positive. Third, environmental regulation has a negative moderating effect on the impact of technological innovation on enterprise employment. Finally, the impacts of both environmental regulation and technological innovation on the employment of manufacturing enterprises are heterogeneous across enterprises due to differences in ownership structure, the degree of pollution, and technical density. Therefore, faced with the objective reality that environmental carrying capacity has reached or approached the upper limit, China needs to formulate a differentiated and diversified technological innovation system and environmental protection policy, improve the environmental innovation level of manufacturing enterprises, and form a green development model, which is of great significance for achieving high-quality development and stable employment.

CO <sub>2</sub> Emissions, Renewable Energy and Environmental Regulations in the EU Countries

This paper analyses the factors explaining the slight decrease of CO2 emissions in the European Union (EU), recorded during the last period. With a focus on 12 EU countries, we apply a panel data analysis over the period 1990 to 2017 and we investigate the impact of renewable energy share in energy production, and the role of EU environmental regulations, in explaining the level of CO2 emissions. Our static and dynamic panel data analysis points to a negative impact of an increased renewable energy share on CO2 emissions, while there is no clear evidence about the role of environmental regulations. It appears that the 2020 climate and energy package contributed to the reduction of pollution level, while the ratification of the Kyoto protocol by the EU countries had no significant influence. At the same time, our findings validate the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis and the pollution halo (PH) hypothesis, showing that foreign companies export eco-friendly technologies. Our results prove to be robust regarding the use of static fixed and random effects models, of two stages least square models and the use of difference and system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) frameworks.

Research on Threshold Effect of Environmental Regulation and Green Total Factor Productivity

This paper selects the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2016, and uses the threshold effect model to analyze the correlation between environmental regulation and green total factor productivity (GTFP). The results show that: The impact of environmental regulation on GTFP is non-linear and has a double threshold effect. Therefore, the local governments of all provinces should continue to play a positive role in environmental regulation, reasonably adjust the level of environmental regulation according to local specific economic development and industrialization level, etc., and strive to promote the transformation of medium and high polluting enterprises to green environmental protection enterprises..

The extension of the Porter hypothesis: Can the role of environmental regulation on economic development be affected by other dimensional regulations?

China's ecological civilization construction is committed to promoting ecological construction and regional development from multiple dimensions, and some scholars have proposed that the role of environmental regulation in the Porter hypothesis may be affected by other regulations. Therefore, this study proposes to expand the Porter Hypothesis from a single environmental regulation to multi-dimensional regulations. We propose the interaction mechanism of different dimensional regulations—economic, social, and environmental—of the ecological provinces in China. Through empirical analysis using provincial panel data for 1999–2016 in China, we made the following observations: First, multi-dimensional regulations of China's ecological province construction have a significant positive impact on regional development, which shows that China's comprehensive construction from multiple dimensions is generally successful. Second, environmental regulation is more likely to play a role through the channel of multi-dimensional regulations, which supports that other dimensional regulations have a significant effect in the Porter hypothesis. Third, environmental regulation may increase costs and have potential inhibitory effects on economic development. It may be an effective way to reduce the negative impact of environmental regulation through matching with other reasonable dimensional regulations. In summary, expanding the Porter hypothesis from single environmental regulation to multi-dimensional regulations is applicable and valuable in China's ecological province construction.

Carbon emissions and optimal scale of China's manufacturing agglomeration under heterogeneous environmental regulation

This article has studied the optimal scale of manufacturing agglomeration aiming at controlling industrial CO2 emissions and the role of environmental regulation in China using the main function of panel cointegration and Full Modified Ordinary Least Square(FMOLS) based on the Dynamic Comprehensive Measure (DCM) of intensities of environmental regulation for 28 China's manufacturing subsectors and classification of the manufacturing subsectors according to their intensities of environmental regulations. The empirical results show that: (i) Higher intensity of environmental regulation can spur manufacturing subsectors get more agglomerative economies with less CO2 emissions. (ii) The relationship between the agglomerative manufacturing subsectors with high and medium intensity of environmental regulation and CO2 emissions shows inverted U-shaped changing trend. (iii) By contrast, the relationship between the agglomerative manufacturing subsectors with low intensity of environmental regulation and CO2 emissions more likely presents U-shaped changing trend. (iv) High intensity of environmental regulation aiming at high polluting manufacturing subsectors can make them reach the inflection of CO2 emissions under high scale of industrial agglomeration. Consequently, the government should take the policy with a general increase in the intensity of environment regulation, and use heterogeneous regulatory instruments according to different manufacturing subsectors so as to increase the emission reduction effect of manufacturing agglomeration.

Does Environmental Policy Reduce Enterprise Innovation?—Evidence from China

With the serious worldwide problem of carbon emissions, carbon emissions’ control and trade have become necessary policies adopted by the governments, after the establishment of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), China has also implemented a similar carbon emission trading pilot policy which plays a vital role in environmental regulation and influences enterprise behaviors, so this paper will put more focus on the impact of this policy on the enterprise innovation. In this paper, we construct a theoretical model and use the “Chinese Carbon Emissions Trading Pilot Policy” as a quasi-natural experiment to accurately identify the net causal effect of this environmental policy on enterprise innovation. Moreover, we use the synthetic control and difference-in-differences methods to eliminate the endogeneity to a large extent and conduct the robustness tests, difference-in-differences method, placebo test, and permutation test to respectively confirm these results. The results show that the implementation of carbon emissions trading policy will significantly reduce the enterprise innovation in general, this conclusion is contrary to the EU ETS’s effect, which is confirmed by plenty of previous empirical study. However, this policy has different effects across enterprises of different industries and different types of innovation. It can promote enterprise innovation of environmental industry, but it will inhibit enterprise innovation of non-environmental industry; besides, it can promote the development of green technical innovation and inhibit non-green technical innovation, which is basically identical to the causal effect of EU ETS.

Comparative proteomic study of the response to hypoxia in the muscle of oriental river prawn (Macrobrachium nipponense)

Adaptation to hypoxia is a complex process involving up- or down-regulation of numerous different proteins. In order to understand the molecular responses to hypoxia in crustacean muscle tissue, flow cytometry and oxidative stress analysis were used to explore the (hypoxia) physiological response on Macrobrachium nipponense. A 2D-gel-based proteomic approach was performed to compare the muscle proteome of hypoxic and normoxic M. nipponense. MALDI-TOF/TOF identified 15 and five proteins were significantly up- and down-regulated, respectively, in M. nipponense muscle under hypoxic conditions for 24h. Five spots were confirmed as hemocyanin, indicating an important role in environmental regulation. Real-time quantitative PCR confirmed that hemocyanin, heat shock protein 70, glutathione S-transferases, metallothionein, phosphofructokinase, and pyruvate kinase 2 were all up-regulated by hypoxia stress. These results suggest that the cellular response to hypoxia involves regulating proteins that function in maintaining antioxidative capacity, energy levels and muscle structure. Western blotting confirmed that the well-known hypoxic stress markers hemocyanin and heat shock protein 70 were up-regulated. These results increase our understanding of hypoxia-induced proteomic and transcriptional changes in M. nipponense muscle tissue. Biological significanceThis 2-DE proteomic study investigated differentially expressed proteins in the muscle of prawns following hypoxia. Identified proteins may have roles in the response to hypoxia. These results improve our understanding of hypoxic stress in crustaceans and aquatic ecosystems.

Economic theories of eco-innovations: a comparison between the neoclassical and evolutionary approaches

The present paper contributes to the debate on eco-innovations (EIs) by comparing their role within the framework of two contrasting theoretical perspectives: the neoclassical vs. the evolutionary viewpoint. In the neoclassical approach, EIs play a crucial role in achieving the goal of environmental sustainability mainly through their contribution to the technological progress that can offset the negative effects of the exhaustion of natural resources. By contrast, evolutionists analyse EIs in their dynamic and multi-dimensional nature, recognising the important role played by organisational, social, and institutional innovations for environmental sustainability. In this framework, the deterministic neoclassical perspective seems to be particularly useful to investigate specific characteristics of EIs, such as efficiency and role of environmental regulation. By contrast, the evolutionary theories are suitable to investigate radical innovations and to avoid any technology bias, by stressing the need for consideration of social and institutional dimensions.

The role of environmental regulation in the future competitiveness of the pulp and paper industry: the case of the sulfur emissions directive in Northern Europe

Introduction of the sulfur emissions reduction directive for maritime transport has become a heavily debated policy issue in Northern Europe from the perspective of the future competitiveness of transport-dependent industries. The scientific value of this study is in its contribution to the scarce literature on the future of pulp and paper industry competitiveness from the tightening environmental regulation perspective, highlighting the complementary role of law-abiding and voluntary regulations. Using a Delphi-foresight method, the study evaluates the effectiveness of environmental regulation by identifying its positive and negative aspects for the future success of the pulp and paper industry, and uses the reduction of sulfur emissions as an example. From a business perspective, the panelists saw tightening regulation as both a threat and an opportunity, and stressed the role of the policy implementation in achieving actual environmental improvement. The strict regulatory measures were generally perceived as environmentally advantageous and more effective in the long term, but a rather divided view was seen in the ability of the sulfur emissions directive to effectively govern environmental sustainability. In discussion, the role of more voluntary alternatives to implementing command-and-control type policy measures is emphasized in complementing government legislation, to gain market benefits from greening the entire pulp and paper supply chain. To conclude, the development of sustainable transportation strategies has the potential to contribute toward long-term competitiveness in the pulp and paper industry, especially if new strategic innovation-oriented cross-sector partnerships develop in the production and use of transportation biofuels.

Sustainable Environmental Manufacturing Practice (SEMP) and Firm Performance: Moderating Role of Environmental Regulation

Theoretical evidence shows that a considerable amount of attention has been given to environmental issues in academic researches in the past years and the link between sustainable environmental practices and firm performance remains inconclusive. One of the reasons for this inconsistent relationship is due to the increasing regulatory requirements of the environmental sustainable practices which have become increasingly stringent on yearly basis. This study investigates the moderating effect of environmental regulation on the relationship between sustainable environmental manufacturing practices and firm performance. Data was collected by using a mail survey questionnaire from the manufacturing companies in Malaysia and analyzed with PLS-SEM. The result of the empirical investigation found that environmental regulation only moderates the relationship between SEMP and environmental performance. The relationships between SEMP; and financial and operational performance were not significantly moderated by stringent environmental regulation. The study recommends that environmental policy makers should revisit the blueprint about environmental regulation on environmental practices to provide supportive environmental policies that will enhance a better financial and operational performance in manufacturing industry.