Does the application of industrial robots promote export green transformation? Evidence from Chinese manufacturing enterprises

Hangrui Dai, Ronghai Yang, Rongguang Cao and Lei Yin

International Review of Economics & Finance, 2024, vol. 96, issue PA

Abstract: Green exports are key in propelling China's foreign trade toward high-quality development. Based on rigorous theoretical analysis, this article employs comprehensive data from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) from 2006 to 2014, along with data from the China Customs and industrial enterprise databases, to evaluate the impact of industrial robot utilization on fostering the green transformation of exports. The results reveal that the application of industrial robots unequivocally contributes to advancing the eco-friendly transformation of exports. This conclusion withstands endogeneity and robustness tests. In particular, industrial robots directly promote the green transformation of exports and exert an indirect influence through technological and scale effects. Technological effects can be divided into technological progress and green production, while scale effects relate to enterprise size and industry competitiveness. In terms of heterogeneity, the promoting effect of industrial robot utilization on the green transformation of exports is more pronounced in foreign-funded enterprises, technology-intensive enterprises, and enterprises in the eastern region. To efficiently leverage policy effects and facilitate the green transformation of exports, this article suggests strengthening policy guidance, providing special funds, tax incentives, and rewards, enhancing enterprise research and development capabilities, and encouraging domestic and non-technology-intensive enterprises, and enterprises in the eastern region to utilize industrial robots.

Keywords: Industrial robot; Export green transformation; Export green technology sophistication (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056024005306
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reveco:v:96:y:2024:i:pa:s1059056024005306

DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2024.103538

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Economics & Finance is currently edited by H. Beladi and C. Chen

More articles in International Review of Economics & Finance from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().