Green technology innovation, environmental externality, and the cleaner upgrading of industrial structure in China — Considering the moderating effect of environmental regulation

Ronghui Xie and Thompson S.H. Teo

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2022, vol. 184, issue C

Abstract: Under the requirements of high-quality development of China's economy, how to impel the industrial structure towards a cleaner upgrading path becomes a matter of urgency. Various studies have investigated the role of technology innovation in industrial restructuring and upgrading, however, generally been conducted under the framework of the traditional economic research paradigm which solely aims at economic expansion and economic growth but ignores the extensive consumption of energy and the increasing environmental costs. This study seeks to fill the gap in research by expanding the traditional measurement of industrial upgrading, and further discovering the internal logic between green technology innovation, environmental regulation and the cleaner upgrading of industrial structure in the context of China. Based on empirical regressions on a panel data from China's 35 industrial sectors during 2002–2019, our results have evidenced that green technology innovation is a valid driving force in facilitating the cleaner upgrading except for the Low value-added & Cleaner (LC) sectors. Environmental regulation presents negative direct impacts on industries' cleaner upgrading; while given the obvious industrial heterogeneity, the moderating effects of environmental regulation appear to be quite complex. These findings provide an important policy basis for the formulation of green transformation strategies of China's industries.

Keywords: China; Green technology innovation; Cleaner upgrading of industrial structure; Driving mechanism; Environmental regulation; Moderating effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162522005418
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:tefoso:v:184:y:2022:i:c:s0040162522005418

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2022.122020

Access Statistics for this article

Technological Forecasting and Social Change is currently edited by Fred Phillips

More articles in Technological Forecasting and Social Change from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().