Environmental regulation is an important driving force of green technology innovation. In this paper, environmental policy instruments are classified into three categories: command-control, market-incentive and social-will. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2010 to 2017, a fixed effect model and a panel threshold regression model are used to test the heterogeneous effects of different types of environmental policy instruments on the green technology innovation in China. The results show that: (1) Overall, China’s environmental policy instruments do not provide sufficient impetus for green technology innovation; (2) The impact of command-control environmental policy instruments on green technology innovation has a single threshold effect. When its intensity exceeds a certain threshold, green technology innovation is improved. The impact of market-incentive environmental policy instruments on the green technology innovation shows a double threshold effect, that is to say, only when its intensity maintained within a reasonable interval, can green technology innovation be promoted by it; (3) There is significant spatial difference in the impact of different types of environmental policy instruments on green technology innovation. In order to induce green technology innovation, it is necessary to formulate a combined and differentiated environmental policy system, while rationally adjusting the strength of different types of environmental policy instruments.

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Technology absorption based on technology input–output is a main source of regional economic growth, and it can be one of the mechanisms to achieve regional sustainable development. In order to explore the influence mechanism and effects of regional technology absorption on economic growth, this paper classifies 30 provinces (including municipalities and autonomous regions) in China into technology input areas and technology output areas. With economic data from 2000 to 2016, this paper adopts the Hausman test and conducts an empirical study using regression analysis of fixed effect and random effect. The result shows that: (1) compared to technology output areas, technology absorption has a greater effect on economic growth in technology input areas; and (2) in general, all of these different types of technology transactions contribute to promoting regional economy. In technology output areas, the promoting effects of four different technology transactions on economic growth are sequenced from strong to weak as following: technology development, technology consultation, technology service, and technology transfer, while in the technology input areas, the promotion effect on economic growth from strong to weak is technology development, technology service, technology consultation, and technology transfer.