ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Economics and Management
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1582399
Does Environmental Regulation Drive or Hinder the Development of New Quality Productive Forces? Evidence from Chinese Listed Firms
Provisionally accepted
- 1Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province, China
- 2Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Republic of Korea
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This study investigates the nonlinear relationship between environmental regulation (ER) and the development speed of New Quality Productive Forces (NQPF) using data from Chinese A-share listed firms (2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019)(2020)(2021)(2022). We identify a robust inverted U-shaped relationship, with moderate ER intensity stimulating productivity gains through innovation incentives, while excessive stringency suppresses growth due to escalating compliance costs. Mechanism analyses reveal that compliance costs mediate this relationship nonlinearly, whereas innovation investment-particularly R&D expenditures-exerts a negative mediating effect, reflecting resource diversion toward short-term compliance over transformative innovation. Heterogeneity tests underscore critical disparities across industries, regions, and firm ownerships, challenging the universality of the Porter Hypothesis in transitional economies.Practically, the findings advocate for spatially and sectorally differentiated environmental policies, emphasizing institutional readiness and localized innovation ecosystems. This study redefines the ERproductivity debate by integrating institutional context and firm-level adaptability, offering actionable insights for sustainable governance in emerging economies.
Keywords: environmental regulation, new quality productive forces, development speed, Chinese listed firms, Inverted U-shaped relationship
Received: 24 Feb 2025; Accepted: 29 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Su, Gao and Lv. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Huaqiang Su, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Republic of Korea
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