A Study On The Impact Of Low Carbon Transformation Of China’s Textile And Apparel Industry On Its Gvc Position

With the promulgation of the “14th Five-Year Plan for Green Industrial Development”,China has once again emphasized that green transformation is the key for China’s manufacturing enterprises to cope with future international competition and achieve green development.As China’s traditional manufacturing industry,the textile and apparel industry has been embedded in the global value chain(GVC)at an early stage,and China has formed a complete industrial chain by continuously undertaking the international transfer of the global textile and apparel industry becoming the world’s largest producer and trader of textiles.However,it is worth noting that China’s textile and apparel industry is currently facing two key problems: the first is the "Low-End Lock-In" of the China’s textile and apparel industry in the global value chain.The second is that,under the influence of domestic and international environmental regulations,pollution problems in China’s textile and apparel industry,such as waste water and emissions,have affected the development of the industry and had a significant negative impact on its export volume and competitiveness.Therefore,against the backdrop of increasingly stringent environmental requirements at home and abroad,it is worth considering and studying whether China’s textile and apparel industry can improve its product quality and enhance its export competitiveness to climb up the global value chain through a low carbon transformation.Firstly,this paper reviews the research on global value chains and low carbon transformation of industries in the literature review section,providing a research basis and theoretical rationale for this paper to study the low carbon transformation of the textile and apparel industry on its global value chain position.Secondly,the paper analyzed the current situation of low carbon transformation and global value chain position of China’s textile and apparel industry.The super-SBM method is used to measure the total factor carbon emission efficiency and export complexity of the textile and apparel industry in 30 China’s provinces to measure the extent of their low carbon transformation and their global value chain position respectively.The paper then further introduces the pathways through which the low carbon transformation of the China’s textile and apparel industry affects its global value chain position,focusing on the "innovation compensation effect" and "cost offset effect" of the low carbon transformation of the textile and apparel industry.Finally,a panel regression model is used to examine the impact of the low carbon transformation of the textile and apparel industry on its global value chain position.The study found that: firstly,from the total sample,the carbon emission efficiency of the textile and apparel industry shows a positive U-shaped relationship with its export complexity,indicating that there is an inflection point in the impact of low carbon transformation on the position of global value chains,where the low carbon transformation on the left side of the inflection point hinders the improvement of the position of global value chains,and beyond the inflection point,the low carbon transformation of the textile and apparel industry can promote the improvement of its position of global value chains.Second,from the total sample,the results of the empirical tests on the path of low carbon transformation in the textile and apparel industry affecting the GVC position show that the "technology-innovating" low carbon transformation has a positive impact on the GVC position,while the "pollution-reducing" low carbon transformation has a hindering effect on the GVC position.The results of the empirical tests show that "technology-innovating" low carbon transformations have a positive impact on GVC position,while "pollution-reducing" low carbon transformations have a hindering effect on GVC position.Third,in the robustness test,the total sample is divided into high-efficiency and low-efficiency provinces according to their carbon emission efficiency,and the sub-samples are tested empirically.The results of the robustness tests show that the U-shaped relationship between carbon emission efficiency and export complexity is not significant for the high-efficiency provinces,while the U-shaped relationship is better confirmed for the low-efficiency provinces.The impact of a "technology-innovating" low carbon transformation on GVCs is not significant in the high-efficiency provinces;the impact of a "pollution-reducing" low carbon transformation on GVCs is not significant in the low-efficiency provinces;and under both pathways,the impact on GVCs in the high-efficiency provinces is not significant compared to the low-efficiency provinces.The conclusion that a "technology-innovating" low carbon transformation promotes GVCs and a "pollution-reducing" low carbon transformation hinders GVCs is also met.