环境规制强度与中国对美国直接投资的区位选择

Environmental Regulations Intensity and the Location Choice of China’s Direct Investment toward the United States

在中国对外直接投资迅速增长但同时面临发达国家日益严格的环境规制约束背景下,以美国为代表的东道国环境规制强度及地区经济特征对中国投资区位选择战略的影响十分值得关注。以2008-2015年中国对美国44个州、14个行业的直接投资存量为样本,采用固定效应和门槛回归模型分析了美国环境规制强度对中国投资规模和区位的影响及机制。实证结果表明,整体上美国各州环境规制强度的提升对中国资本的流入存在显著的抑制作用,尤其是在污染密集型行业;同时,地区经济发展水平、人力资本和技术水平均存在双重门槛值,环境规制强度对中国直接投资产生非线性影响。

In the context of the rapid growth of China’s outward foreign direct investment(OFDI)while at the same time faced with the constraining force of strict environmental regulations set by developed countries,the influence of the environmental regulation intensity brought about by host countries represented by the United States on China’s strategy of investment location choice is worth close watching.Taking China’s direct investment stock across 44 states and in 14 industries in USA over the period from 2008 to 2015 as the samples,this paper analyses the impact and mechanism of US environmental regulation intensity on China’s investment scale and location by the fixed effect and threshold regression models.The empirical results prove that,in general,the increase of environment regulation intensity in any US state can significantly restrain the inflow of China’s capital,especially in the pollution-intensive industries.Meanwhile,regional economic development level,human capital and technology level all have double threshold values,and environmental regulations intensity has a non-linear impact on China’s direct investment.