The dual effects of heterogeneous environmental regulation on the technological innovation of Chinese steel enterprises—Based on a high-dimensional fixed effects model

Xuehong Zhu, Xuguang Zuo and Hailing Li

Ecological Economics, 2021, vol. 188, issue C

Abstract: With the deterioration of China's ecological environment, technological innovation (TI) has become an important method of green transformation and upgrading Chinese steel enterprises (CSEs) under the constraint of environmental regulation (ER). Based on environmental protection panel data of 86 CSEs from 2005 to 2014, this paper first analyzes the direct effects of heterogeneous environmental regulation (HER) on TI and then studies the indirect effects of HER on TI through factors such as enterprise size, human capital, enterprise profit margin and executive environmental awareness. Based on a high-dimensional fixed effects model, the results show that (1) command-control environmental regulation (CCER) and voluntary environmental regulation (VER) have direct and positive effects on the TI of CSEs, while market-incentive environmental regulation (MIER) does not; and (2) the indirect effect of human capital is positively regulated by CCER and VER and that of enterprise size is negatively regulated by MIER, while all of the types of HER regulate the negative indirect effect of profit margin and the positive indirect effect of executive environmental awareness. It is necessary that combined and unified policy tools be implemented in the iron and steel industry (ISI) nationwide to coordinate the effects of HER.

Keywords: Command-control environmental regulation; Market-incentive environmental regulation; Voluntary environmental regulation; Technological innovation; Direct and indirect effects; Chinese steel enterprises (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (30)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:188:y:2021:i:c:s0921800921001713

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107113

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