Two-sided and Heterogeneous Effects of Environmental Regulation on the Technological Innovation Efficiency of Iron and Steel Enterprises in China

In this study,the relationship between environmental regulations and technological innovation efficiencyis empirically examined via panel data from 33 iron and steel enterprises(ISs)in China between 2015 and 2021.The results show that the average“innovation compensation effect”of environmental regulations on the technological innovation efficiency of ISs exceeds the average“compliance cost effect”,thus resulting in a clearly positivenet effect.Both the two-sided effects and the net effects vary across different years,geographical regions,andtypes of property rights.As the quantile of technological innovation efficiency increases,the positive influence ofenvironmental regulations tends to increase.Furthermore,the strengthening of financing constraints and firmcompetitiveness enhances the positive impact of environmental regulations on the technological innovation efficiency of ISs.Additionally,a double-threshold effect of environmental regulations on the technological innovationefficiency of ISs is revealed in this study.The realisation of the Porter hypothesis occurs when financing constraintsand firm competitiveness fall within specific threshold intervals.This research not only deepens our understandingof the relationship between environmental regulations and the technological innovation efficiency of ISs but alsoprovides valuable policy insights for optimising environmental regulations to facilitate targeted improvements in thelevel of technological innovation efficiency.

Study on the efficiency and regional disparity of green technology innovation in China's industrial companies

This paper first constructed a system to evaluate the innovation efficiency of industrial companies within China's Mainland.Then,a principal component analysis(PCA) was performed to these indicators for dimensionality reduction,so as to figure out the technology innovation efficiency in these two phases,respectively.Finally,the overall efficiency of industrial companies in different regions was estimated and factorized via data envelopment analysis(DEA).The results showed that:(1)the efficiency of green technology innovation of industrial companies in China was relatively low as a whole,which mainly resulted from pure technical efficiency(PTE).Further,this huge gap continues to expand in these regions.And both PTE and scale efficiency(SE) in central and western regions leave much to be expected.(2)In the first phase of green technology development,when environmental factors were concerned,the efficiency was much lower than that without environmental considerations.Besides,the central and western regions were facing increasingly severe environmental problems,and there was a wide disparity in technology development efficiency among eastern,central,and western regions.(3)In the second phase of green technology commercialization,there were still more rooms for improvement in raising the efficiency of green technology innovation,and the efficiency in eastern,central,and western regions was ranked from highest to lowest.(4)Liaoning,Hebei,Heilongjiang,Xinjiang,Shanxi,Inner Mongolia,Yunnan,and Qinghai should focus on improving their technology;Jilin,Jiangxi,Anhui,and Guangxi should make their efforts to reduce resource redundancy;whereas Ningxia and Gansu should try to solve the above two issues.