A Study On The Impact Of Technological Innovation On The Technological Complexity Of Imports From The Perspective Of Environmental Regulation

In the face of the world’s unprecedented changes in a century,General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed that "China’s open door will not be closed,but will only be opened wider and wider".Thanks to economic globalization and trade liberalization,China’s import trade volume was US$809.971 billion in 2007,and reached US$165.9775 billion in2021,with China’s import trade scale achieving continuous and rapid growth.At the same time,the Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Innovative Development of Foreign Trade clearly emphasize the urgency of optimizing the structure of China’s foreign trade under the demands of high-quality development.How to upgrade the technological tier of imported trade products(especially manufacturing)with access threshold adjustment,technological innovation,etc.,driven by the self-selection effect and import promotion competition effect will be crucial(Wei,and Li,2015).This implies the urgent need for increasingly stringent environmental regulation policies under the "double carbon target" and technological innovation to respond to the "technology lock" and "technology decoupling" in Europe and the US.Meanwhile,innovation is the first driving force of development.The National Bureau of Statistics reports that as of 2020,China’s R&D investment in manufacturing reached RMB1,527.13 billion,an increase of 9.3% over the previous year.The results of R&D investment are evident to all,with the production of medium and high technology products reaching new heights,and the relationship between the increase in technological content of domestic products and the complexity of imported technology resulting from technological innovation in the context of environmental regulation is worth exploring.This paper firstly,through a review of relevant literature at home and abroad,illustrates how technological innovation affects the technical complexity of manufacturing imports at the inter-provincial level through the product competition effect and the economic growth effect;furthermore,this paper illustrates how environmental regulation exerts a moderating effect through the cost-increasing effect and the innovation compensation effect,and how the level of marketisation and trade liberalization affect the above-mentioned moderating effect.Secondly,we use CEPII bilateral trade data,customs database data and China Statistical Yearbook to measure the technical complexity of manufacturing imports at the interprovincial level,and integrate the data with environmental regulation,market level and trade liberalization indicators.Finally,a panel econometric model is constructed to empirically investigate the effects of technological innovation and environmental regulation on the technical complexity of manufacturing imports at the inter-provincial level in China at six levels: baseline regression,robustness test,endogeneity test,heterogeneity test and impact mechanism.The findings suggest that,firstly,technological innovation promotes an increase in the technological sophistication of imports.Second,the positive effect of technological innovation is more pronounced for heavily polluting industries and for regions with strict environmental regulations.Third,environmental regulation positively moderates the effect of technological innovation on the complexity of imported technology.However,there is significant regional heterogeneity in this positive moderating effect,with the study finding that environmental regulations only strengthen the positive effect of technological innovation on the complexity of imported technology in the eastern region.Fourthly,environmental regulation positively moderates the effect of technological innovation on imported technological sophistication,while the level of marketisation strengthens this moderating effect and trade liberalization weakens it.Based on theoretical analysis,comparative analysis of the current situation and empirical tests,this paper puts forward the following policy recommendations: first,improve innovation investment to strengthen innovation efficiency;second,improve the mechanism for transforming innovation achievements and build a platform for transforming innovation achievements;third,tailor policy implementation to local conditions to enhance the efficiency of environmental regulation;fourth,promote trade liberalization to strengthen the effect of technological upgrading.