Economic Policy Uncertainty and Corporate Innovation: Evidence From China

et al. 2021

IJERPH

As the continuous changes in environmental regulations have a non-negligible impact on the innovation activities of micro subjects, and economic policy uncertainty has become one of the important influencing factors to be considered in the development of enterprises. Therefore, based on the panel data of Chinese high-tech enterprises from 2012–2017, this paper explores the impact of heterogeneous environmental regulations on firms’ green innovation from the perspective of economic policy uncertainty as a moderating variable. The empirical results show that, first, market-incentivized environmental regulation instruments have an inverted U-shaped relationship with innovation output, while voluntary environmental regulation produces a significant positive impact. Second, the U-shaped relationship between market-based environmental regulation and innovation output becomes more pronounced when economic policy uncertainty is high. However, it plays a negative moderating role in regulating the relationship between voluntary-based environmental regulation and innovation output. This paper not only illustrates the process of technological innovation by revealing the intrinsic mechanism of environmental regulation on firm innovation, but also provides insights for government in environmental governance from the perspective of economic policy uncertainty as well.

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 64%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic Policy Uncertainty, Environmental Regulation, and Green Innovation—An Empirical Study Based on Chinese High-Tech Enterprises

Zhu

Sun

et al. 2021

IJERPH

“…The in uence of EPU on innovation is also signi cantly different for different types of enterprises. For instance, Wang et al (2017) found that this signi cant passive effect exists only in politically related enterprises, but companies in highly competitive industries promote innovation when facing uncertainty (Shen et al 2020).…”

Section: Economic Policy Uncertainty and Green Technology Innovatiomentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental regulation, economic policy uncertainty, and green technology innovation

Clean Techn Environ Policy

2021

Green technology innovation is imperative to sustainable and environmentally sound economic development and is currently facing increasingly serious environmental threats. However, existing research has overlooked the uncertainties in economic policies. Based on the logical relationship between environmental regulation, economic policy uncertainty, and green technology innovation, this study empirically analyzed the quantitative relationship among these three variables using the xed-effect panel method and provincial panel data from 2000 to 2017 for 30 administrative regions of China. The results show that environmental regulation is positively correlated with green innovation, whereas economic policy uncertainty has a negative in uence on green innovation, thereby regulating the relationship between the remaining two factors. Moreover, considerable regional heterogeneity exists in these causal in uences, i.e., environmental regulation promotes green innovation in the eastern and middle regions but not signi cantly in the west. The uncertainty actively moderates the impact of environmental regulation on green innovation in all regions with an adjustment coe cient of approximately 0.8; however, it inhibits green innovation in different degrees, especially in the eastern and middle regions. Based on empirical results, we conclude that strict and appropriate environmental regulations are necessary and effective in China to encourage green technology innovation, especially in regions with uncertain economic policies.

“…The prior studies mainly use many proxy variables to measure EPU. For example, the single economic policy variables ( 29 – 32 ), the non-economic dummy variables (i.e., terrorist attacks and political events) ( 33 – 35 ), the EPU index proposed by Baker et al ( 20 ) (BBI index) ( 23 , 36 – 38 ). Since the measures above on EPU are mainly at the national level, the EPU of different regions in China may be different.…”

Section: Data Variables and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Economic Policy Uncertainty Matter for Healthcare Expenditure in China? A Spatial Econometric Analysis

Bai

Tang

et al. 2021

Front. Public Health

A growing body of research has documented the determinants of healthcare expenditure, but no known empirical research has focused on investigating the spatial effects between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and healthcare expenditure. This study aims to explore the spatial effects of EPU on healthcare expenditure using the panel data of 29 regions in China from 2007 to 2017. Our findings show that healthcare expenditure in China has the characteristics of spatial clustering and spatial spillover effects. Our study also shows that EPU has positive spatial spillover effects on healthcare expenditure in China; that is, EPU affects not only local healthcare expenditure but also that in other geographically close or economically connected regions. Our study further indicates that the spatial spillover effects of EPU on healthcare expenditure only exist in the eastern area. The findings of this research provide some key implications for policymakers in emerging markets.