This paper uses spatial econometric and the threshold effect models to study the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) in China’s energy conservation and emissions reduction. We use provincial-level data on pollutants (CO₂, wastewater emission, exhaust emission, and waste emission) available from 2001 to 2015. Results indicated that FDI not only promotes China’s “energy conservation,” but also improves China’s CO₂ emission efficiency and environmental efficiency. We find that export-oriented foreign companies can significantly improve China’s energy efficiency and water quality. FDI enhances energy efficiency through eco-oriented technological progress and water quality, air quality through production-oriented technological progress. We also find that the impact of FDI on China’s energy conservation and emission reduction has significant threshold effects. Our findings contradict the often believed “pollution haven hypothesis.”

We use the 2013 cotton precision farming survey data to study the adoption of irrigation technologies by cotton farmers in 14 states of the United States. We find that farmers with a higher irrigated yield, and who are from the Southern Plains (Texas and Oklahoma), adopt water-efficient irrigation technologies, such as sub-surface drip and trickle irrigation technologies. There are 10 irrigation technologies that farmers can adopt for cotton production in these 14 cotton-growing states. The intensity of the irrigation technologies, as measured by the number of irrigation technologies adopted in cotton production, is affected by the irrigated cotton yield realized, land holding (total land owned), education, computer use, and the origin of the cotton farmer being from the Southern Plains. We use a multivariate fractional regression model to identify land allocation by the different irrigation technologies used. Our results indicate that significant variables affecting land allocation with different irrigation technologies are the age of the operator, the cover crop, the information sources used, the per acre irrigated yield, the education, and the cotton farmer being from the Southern Plains.