The Effects Of FDI On The Green Technological Innovation In China

In recent years,with more strict demand on China’s green development,the impact of foreign direct investment(FDI)on China’s green technological innovation has been widely concerned by scholars.However,unfortunately,owing to be limited by data,the relevant research has not delved into technological innovation of different technical fields,types of innovators,and levels of quality.In order to comprehensively grasp the heterogeneity of FDI’s impact on China’s green technological innovation and analyze its total effect,this paper uses all valid patent application information announced by the China Intellectual Property Office since 1997 to identify green patents.Then,this paper uses patent statistics to reveal China’s green technological innovation of different technical fields,types of innovators,and levels of quality.By utilizing the new indicators,this paper constructs provincial panel data to analyze the impact of FDI on green innovation through instrument variables and the generalized distance estimation(GMM)method and examine its heterogeneity impact.The main results are as follows.It has been found that FDI pushes forward the overall technological innovation,but it fails to redirect China’s technological innovation shifting to greener fields,which may be the consequence of the superposition effect of FDI’s heterogenous impact on China’s green technological innovation with respect to different technical fields,types of innovators and levels of quality.Firstly,FDI accelerates green technological innovation in alternative energy sectors,but it fails in fields such as administrative design,agriculture and forestry,energy storage,transportation,waste management and nuclear power generation.The alternative energy policy in China may be accounted for this result.Secondly,FDI encourages green utility innovation,which embedded less innovative contents.However,it has negative effect on the green invention innovation,which embedded more innovative contents.This indicates that complex technologies may be hard to be transferred between domestic and foreign enterprises,while practical technologies spread relatively smoothly.Last but not least,FDI promotes green technological innovation applied by firms and by multiple applicants that combines firms,universities and research institutes.However,the results are not significant for universities and research institutions respectively.This indicates that the market-oriented firms are the most important roles in green technological innovation.The market value of green patents is with great importance.This paper utilizes the new indicators of green technological innovation,which can be subdivided into different technical fields,types of innovators and levels of quality to provide some new evidences for the effects of FDI on green technological innovation.For the heterogeneity of FDI’s impact on China’s green technological innovation,it is necessary to integrate and coordinate the role of openness,policies,regime and technology.It is recommended to further broaden the opening up,and at the same time formulate strict environmental protection policies and strengthen the market operation of research institutions and universities.