Accelerating the green transformation of manufacturing industry is the way to the sustainable development of China’s economy and an inevitable requirement for realizing the great vision of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. This paper employs the global Malmquist-Luenberger productivity index based on the SBM-DEA method to calculate the green total factor productivity covering manufacturing industry of 30 Chinese provinces between 2006 and 2019. A difference-in-difference model is constructed to empirically study the direct impact and mechanism assessment of carbon emission trading policy on the green total factor productivity. The results show that the green total factor productivity of China’s manufacturing industry generally showed a dynamic trend of rising during this period. Critically, the implementation of the carbon emissions trading policy has a significant effect on promoting the green total factor productivity of China’s manufacturing industry. Interestingly, this promoting effect will be enhanced by higher technical levels, a cleaner energy structure, and a greener industrial structure. Additionally, our evidence also shows that the positive impact of carbon emission trading policies on green total factor productivity will be improved by higher carbon emission trading prices and a more active carbon emission trading market, thereby accelerating the green transformation process of manufacturing industry. Therefore, taking carbon emissions trading policy as a long-term strategy and improving its effectiveness is crucial to ensuring the green and sustainable development of China’s manufacturing industry.

Green ecological development has become an inevitable choice to achieve sustainable urban development and carbon neutrality. This paper evaluates the level of green ecological city development in the Xin’an watershed as measured by green total factor productivity (GTFP), analyzes the direct and spatial effects of the Watershed Horizontal Ecological Compensation policy on GTFP, and further examines the moderating effect of the Research and Development (R&D) incentives, industrial structure, and income gap. This paper conducts difference-in-differences (DID) and spatial regression analysis on 27 cities from 2007 to 2019. The results show that GTFP progresses to varying degrees across cities over time, especially in the pilot cities. Crucially, the Watershed Horizontal Ecological Compensation policy significantly improved GTFP, although the effect was slight. Interestingly, the increase in GTFP in pilot cities that implemented the policy spatially suppressed the increase in GTFP in cities that did not implement the policy. Our evidence also shows that the positive effect of the policy is higher in regions with higher R&D incentives and industrial structure upgrading, which indicates that R&D incentives and industrial upgrading are crucial. In comparison, the income gap has not made the expected negative adjustment effect under the Chinese government’s poverty alleviation policy. However, the positive policy effect is heterogeneous in the downstream and upstream pilot cities. The “forcing effect” of the policy on the downstream cities is more favorable than the “compensating effect” on the upstream cities. Therefore, policymakers should pay more attention to ensuring the effectiveness of the Watershed Horizontal Ecological Compensation policy in enhancing GTFP as a long-term strategy to guarantee the sustainability of green ecological development in Chinese cities.

This paper examines the direct and spatial impacts of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) on China’s OFDI globally and tests the moderating effect of the BRI, considering economic development, resources and institution quality for 186 countries from 2008 to 2019. The results imply that the BRI has significantly improved China’s OFDI globally, with a much larger effect in Asia and Africa. This study finds that institutional quality has no direct impact on OFDI, with the exception of the corruption index, where China’s OFDI seem to favour countries with higher corruption. However, when institutional quality is used as an interactive term that controls heterogeneity, the results suggest that institutional quality significantly strengthens the effects of the BRI on OFDI. In other words, in countries that engage with BRI, higher institutional quality positively improves the attractiveness of China’s OFDI. The results also reveal that the impact of the BRI is moderated by higher levels of economic development but not by resource-rich host countries. Interestingly, the increasing Chinese OFDI in BRI countries has a spatial suppression effect on OFDI in non-BRI countries, suggesting industrial agglomeration effects due to the BRI. The results are validated by various robustness tests, and this study concludes with policy implications.

This paper assesses the state of inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) and outward foreign direct investment (OFDI), as well as the direct and spatial impact of China’s Belt and Road Initiatives (BRI) on FDI and the degree of coordination synergy between IFDI and OFDI at the provincial level. The paper uses a discontinuous and spatial regression analysis covering 30 Chinese provinces between 2007 and 2019. The results suggest that China’s IFDI and OFDI development has achieved moderate coordination synergy over time. At the provincial level, the BRI has a positive direct impact on IFDI, OFDI and foreign investment coordination synergy. This indicates that with the BRI, China is able to improve OFDI flows and achieve better synergy in foreign investment coordination achieving a more balanced investment development path. Interestingly, the growth of OFDI at the provincial level also had a positive spatial spillover effect, while IFDI displaces domestic investment, the growth of OFDI is able to mitigate the displacement effects. However, the positive effect of BRI was only significant in the eastern region and not in the central and western regions. This indicates the heterogeneous nature of BRI effects, which limits the effectiveness of BRI in promoting FDI growth in China and its coordination synergy as an ambitious global policy.

Transitioning to an industrial greener pathway is critical to achieving the climate change targets and sustainable development goals. For that, studying industrial eco-productivity is critical. This paper assesses the industrial eco-productivity (IEP) of Chinese industrial enterprises at the provincial level and further analyzes the direct, indirect and spatial impact of environmental regulation implemented in six provinces on IEP. The results indicate that over time, IEP has progressed to various degrees across provinces, especially in provinces where environmental regulation is implemented. On average, technological progress, more than technical efficiency, is the main contributor to IEP improvements. Critically, at the provincial level, environmental regulation has significantly improved the IEP, although the differences in effect are small. Interestingly, the promotion of the IEP of provinces that implement environmental regulation has spatially suppressed the improvement of the IEP of provinces that have not. Our evidence also shows that environmental regulation affects IEP by increasing R&D expenditure and product structure upgrading, indicating that innovation transition is critical. However, the positive policy effect is regionally heterogeneous and only reflected in the central region. Therefore, policymakers should pay more attention to ensuring the effectiveness of environmental regulation in improving IEP and technological progress as a long-term strategy in ensuring the sustainability of the industrial development progress in China.