Dual Environmental Regulations,Technological Progress,and Manufacturing Transformation And Upgrading

Since the reform and opening up,Chinese manufacturing industry seized the great opportunity of global manufacturing transfer,relying on the advantages of traditional resources,gradually expanding its global influence.It has also brought about increasingly serious environmental pollution problems.Since the global financial crisis in 2008,Chinese manufacturing industry has faced the double squeeze.Therefore,it is urgent to find an effective path to transform and upgrade to achieve a large-to-strong change.Therefore,under the current increasing environmental pressure,it is no longer feasible to passively wait for the inflection point of the "Environmental Kuznets Curve".It is necessary to choose appropriate technologies to form a green development driving mechanism to promote the high-quality development of our economy.Technological progress is the fundamental reason for the evolution of the manufacturing structure.Therefore,in the context of tightening environmental regulations,whether strengthening environmental regulations can promote technological progress and the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry has become a topic of common concern to the public and academia.In response to the above issues,the article divides environmental regulation into formal environmental regulation and informal environmental regulation.First of all,it analyzes theoretically the mechanism of environmental regulation on technological innovation.Formal environmental regulations and informal environmental regulations were created as threshold variables to construct panel threshold models to test whether changes in environmental regulation intensity would have different impacts on technological innovation.Second,environmental regulations were introduced into the Acemoglu(2002)two-sector model to analyze environmental regulations.The impact mechanism on technological advancement bias is measured by standardized system equations and feasible generalized nonlinear least squares methods.The technology advancement bias index of manufacturing in 28 provinces in China from 2005 to 2015 is empirically tested on the basis of dual environmental regulations on technology.The influence of progress bias.Finally,based on the theoretical analysis of the role of environmental regulation in the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing industries,the technological innovation and technological progress bias index is used as a mediating variable to introduce the model to test the direct and indirect impact of environmental regulations on the manufacturing transformation and upgrading.Based on the above empirical analysis,this article draws the following conclusions:(1)There are significant threshold effects between formal environmental regulation,informal environmental regulation,and technological innovation.(2)From 2005 to 2015,the technological progress of the manufacturing industries in China’s provinces as a whole has shown a capital bias;formal and informal environmental regulations have a differential impact on the bias of technological progress.(3)There is a significant"U" relationship between formal environmental regulation and manufacturing transformation.Informal environmental regulation can significantly promote manufacturing transformation and upgrading.Based on the research conclusions,this article puts forward corresponding policy recommendations.Government should find a new driving mechanism to promote the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry to green,and put economy on a high-quality development path.Implement a differentiated environmental regulation policy,give full play to the positive economic effects of environmental regulation,and increase the emphasis on informal environmental regulation.Government should increase the investment in education,actively cultivated the introduction of high-skilled talents,and gradually formed a "talent bonus" to improve the technological innovation capabilities of enterprises,promote the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing,and achieve a win-win situation for economic development and environmental protection.