Mechanism Analysis Of Environmental Regulation Affecting High Quality Development Of Manufacturing Industry

Manufacturing industry is the main body of national economy and the lifeline of the country.High-quality development of manufacturing industry is the top priority of China’s economic development.The new development concept of ’innovation,coordination,green,opening-up and sharing’ also constitutes the ’baton’ for the high-quality development of manufacturing industry.The extensive development mode of manufacturing industry has attracted the attention of the Central Committee and government departments.Comrade Xi Jinping has made a strategic plan of ’achieving carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutral by 2060’,aiming to achieve the sustainable development of Chinese nation,actively promoting ecological progress,and making green a clear undertone for high-quality development.Environmental regulation has increased the production cost of manufacturing enterprises,squeezed the investment in research and development,and brought enormous external pressure to the development of manufacturing industry.However,’a coin has two sides’.Economists represented by Porter have realized that appropriate environmental regulations can play a forced role and push enterprises to adjust production structure and take the initiative to innovate with a ’tangible hand’,which can achieve a win-win situation between environmental protection and economic development.Therefore,in the context of the economy entering the new normal,whether environmental regulations can promote the high-quality development of manufacturing industry and what is the mechanism of environmental regulations on the high-quality development of manufacturing industry have become the focus of this paper.Environmental regulation is an important means for the government to adjust the market failure of market mechanism on the problems of environmental externalities.Among many environmental regulation tools,command-and-control environmental regulation has been mature,market-based environmental regulations is gradually developing,and public voluntary participation environmental regulation is in its infancy.Command-and-control environmental regulation is the regulatory means studied in this paper.High quality development of manufacturing industry is a new type of development with quality first and benefit first,which change from the old and unsustainable driving force relying on factor input to the new driving force relying on total factor productivity.Total factor productivity is used to explain the contribution of non-labor capital factors to economic growth,which can reflect the efficiency of economic growth.However,the traditional total factor productivity cannot reflect the ecological quality.Green total factor productivity can consider energy consumption and environmental pollution,and it is a scientific indicator to measure the high-quality development of manufacturing industry when resources and environment become hard constraints on economic growth.Therefore,this paper uses green total factor productivity to measure the highquality development of manufacturing industry.Environmental regulation can promote the green transformation of manufacturing industry,corresponding to the ’green’ in the new development concept.Is there an intermediate mechanism for environmental regulation to the high-quality development of manufacturing industry?This paper attempts to uncover the role of environmental regulation in the high-quality development of manufacturing industry.Firstly,this paper puts forward a characteristic fact,that is,based on the quasi natural experiment of the air pollution prevention and control action plan,this paper empirically tests the relationship between environmental regulation and green total factor productivity by using the double difference model(DID),so as to lay a factual foundation for this paper.The neoclassical economic growth theory points out that technological innovation and resource allocation efficiency are the key factors determining total factor productivity.Starting from the analytical framework of endogenous growth theory,this paper theoretically analyzed the direct and indirect mechanism of environmental regulation on the high-quality development of manufacturing industry and sorted out three paths:environmental regulation and green technology innovation,environmental regulation and resource mismatch,and environmental regulation and skill premium.After setting up the theoretical framework of this paper,the empirical test is carried out.Firstly,the effect of environmental regulation on green technology innovation is tested.The individual fixed effect model and feasible generalized least square method(FGLS)are used for empirical test.The relationship among environmental regulation,green technology innovation and green total factor productivity is tested by stepwise regression mediation effect model.Then,we examined the effect of environmental regulation on resource mismatch,constructed the provincial resource mismatch index by referring to H-K resource mismatch model,empirically tested the fixed effect model,and tested the relationship among environmental regulation,resource mismatch and green total factor productivity by mediating effect model.Next,we examined the effect of environmental regulation on skill premium,constructed double-layer nested CES production function for theoretical analysis,used panel threshold model to test,and useed intermediary effect model to test the relationship among environmental regulation,skill premium and green total factor productivity.Finally,some policy suggestions were put forward.Based on the panel data of 30 Chinese provinces(excluding Tibet,Hong Kong,Macao and Taiwan)from 2009 to 2019,this paper drawed the following conclusions after empirical test.(1)Environmental regulation can promote green technology innovation,’Porter hypothesis’ has been verified in China.(2)Environmental regulation reduces the coefficient of labor misallocation and increases the coefficient of capital misallocation,and the effect on labor resource allocation is greater than that of capital allocation.(3)Environmental regulation has a U-shaped effect on skill premium,and there is a single threshold effect.The skill premium is divided into two intervals,both of which show that environmental regulation can promote the improvement of green total factor productivity.When the skill premium level is low,the promotion effect of environmental regulation on green total factor productivity is faster than that when the skill premium level is high.(4)Environmental regulation can not only improve green total factor productivity directly,but also improve green total factor productivity in manufacturing industry by promoting green technological progress,increasing skill premium and reducing labor resource misallocation.Based on the above research conclusions,this paper puts forward corresponding policy suggestions.The government should innovate environmental regulation tools,adapt measures to local conditions,govern according to the city,carry out targeted implementations according to the different stages of industrial structure and economic development,and effectively play its forced role in green transformation of highquality development of manufacturing industry.Enterprises should have a long-term vision,follow the trend of the times and policies,introduce highly skilled personnel,improve technological innovation abilities,and achieve a win-win situation of economic development and environmental protection.