Firms' GVC positioning and corporate environmental performance: Micro evidence from China

Jiajia Cheng, Zhuangxiong Yu, Zhaojie Xue, Yang Yang and Xunpeng Shi

Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 2024, vol. 70, issue C, 268-278

Abstract: How firms' GVC positioning affects their environmental performance is an interesting but under-researched issue. This paper explores the relationship between GVC positioning and environmental performance from the firm level for the first time. Based on the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Pollution Emission Database from 2001 to 2013 combined with OECD's TiVA and China Customs databases, this paper identifies the existence of a right-side smile curve between firms' GVC positioning and Corporate Environmental Performance (CEP, represented by firms' SO2 emission intensity) among firms in developed regions, supported by industrial policies and with large scale, implying that the improvement of CEP could be driven by firms' downstream climbing in GVC. Mechanism analysis reveals that the demand diversity brought about by consumption-downstream GVC positioning expands firms' imported intermediate goods and enhances firms' innovation to promote CEP. The environmental improvement effects are more substantial when the export market is more efficient.

Keywords: Corporate environmental performance; GVC positioning; Sustainable production; Smile curve; Downstreamness; Upstreamness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:streco:v:70:y:2024:i:c:p:268-278

DOI: 10.1016/j.strueco.2024.02.011

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