The Study Of Environmental Regulation On The Reverse Green Technology Progress Of China’s OFDI

The rapid growth of China’s foreign direct investment(OFDI)is an effective channel for China to acquire foreign advanced technologies and resources and plays a pivotal role in facilitating the deep integration of China’s economy with the world.Does China’s OFDI assist in reverse green technology progress(RGTP)in home country? Is the contribution non-linear and constrained by technological distance and environmental regulations? What is the basic mechanism? Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2001 to 2020,this study systematically analyzes the influence of China’s OFDI on RGTP and focuses on the moderating effect of environmental regulation and technological distance,as well as the heterogeneity in terms of technical effect,geographical location,and economic quality.The conclusions are as follows: First,the relationship between China’s OFDI and RGTP progress presents an inverted U-shaped curve.China’s OFDI first promotes and then inhibits RGTP,which is one of the major findings of this research.Second,both technological distance and environmental regulation decrease the height of the inflection point.The difference is that environmental regulations lengthen the "climb" phase,while technological distance shortens the "climb" phase.Finally,the heterogeneity results demonstrate that China’s OFDI always encourages the catch-up of reverse green technology,but cannot always foster the efficacy growth of reverse green technology.In addition,China’s OFDI in coastal areas and provinces with high economic quality has gradually shown a trend of saturation.On the contrary,there is a substantial upward range between inland provinces and non-high-quality economic development provinces.For this purpose,China should actively assume the image of a responsible power and combine the cultivation of emerging industries with acquiring overseas technology.This is the core of optimizing the scale and quality of China’s OFDI and obtaining higher levels of RGTP.While enhancing the scale and quality of China’s foreign direct investment,special attention should also be placed on effectively upgrading the technology absorption capacity through autonomous innovation,so as to reach the optimal technological distance range,and to realize the advancement of RGTP.For those provinces that are near to or will quickly reach the inflection point of the inverted U-shaped curve of foreign direct investment and RGTP,the key is to keep a firm foothold on the top of the inverted U-shaped curve and avoid slipping back to the left side of the inverted U-shaped curve.These new findings provide a new policy basis for China to achieve high-quality RGTP.