The impact of environmental regulation on green total factor productivity: An empirical analysis

Abstract

The transformation of China’s economy from extensive growth to high-quality development is essentially an increase in green total factor productivity (GTFP). China currently has a range of environmental regulation tools, and the question of whether environmental regulation can promote improvement in China’s GTFP requires theoretical and empirical analysis. This article first divides environmental regulation into three types: administrative, market-based and information-based. It then builds an empirical model of the effect of environmental regulation on GTFP. Slacks based measure-data envelope analysis (SBM-DEA) and the Malmquist index are used to measure the GTFP of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2018, and a measurement model of the impact of environmental regulation on GTFP is established. The results show that: (1) there are significant differences in GTFP in eastern, central and western China; (2) there is a non-linear relationship between environmental regulations and GTFP.

The Relationship between Environmental Regulation, Green-Technology Innovation and Green Total-Factor Productivity—Evidence from 279 Cities in China

“…The third is the non-linear hypothesis, which states that environmental regulation has asymmetric effects on green total-factor productivity. A large number of scholars have argued that environmental regulations have a U-shaped effect on green total-factor productivity [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ] or an inverted U-shaped effect [ 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. However, Brännlund found environmental regulation had no significant impact on the productivity of manufacturing enterprises in Sweden [ 28 ].…”

Environmental regulation, industrial structure and energy efficiency: Evidence from 30 provinces in China

“…In fact, due to the different government policy goals and factor endowments, whether considering energy efficiency, environmental regulation or industrial structure, there are obvious heterogeneity characteristics in the regional distribution. For example, Zhang et al (2022), Liu et al (2023), and Qin et al (2021) believe that environmental regulation has different impacts on different regions [ 67 – 69 ]. Therefore, this paper further conducts a regional heterogeneity analysis, and the results are shown in Table 3 .…”

Influence of healthy human capital and environmental regulation on green total factor productivity in China

“…The study of the relationship between environmental regulation and GTFP has worldwide appeal in academia, but remains confined to two dominant perspectives: One is the non‐linear perspective (He, Han, & Wang, 2021), as shown in Zhao et al's (2020) study revealing heterogeneity in the effect of different types of environmental regulations on China's GTFP, and an institutional quality threshold effect in heterogeneous environmental regulation. Feng et al (2021) also argue that the effect of environmental regulation on GTFP has a threshold effect on foreign direct investment.…”

“…Peng (2020) observes the coexistence of the Porter effect and pollution refuge effect in China; that is, environmental regulation by local and neighboring areas affects green productivity growth through green innovation and pollution transfer channels. He, Han, and Wang (2021) claim otherwise by showing that environmental regulation had no significant effect on GTFP in the Yangtze River Delta. Marsiglio and Privileggi (2021) find that the environment can affect economic growth, and Domazlicky and Weber (2004) argue that environmental regulations do not reduce productivity growth.…”