Impact of environmental regulation on the technological complexity of manufacturing export: empirical analysis using panel data of 30 provinces in China

This study utilizes panel data spanning from 2004 to 2020 across 30 provinces in China to empirically examine how environmental regulations affect the technological complexity of provincial manufacturing exports. The results indicate that increasing the stringency of environmental regulation is detrimental to enhancing the technological complexity of provincial manufacturing exports. Specifically, enhancing the development level of technology markets helps mitigate the negative impact of environmental regulation on provincial manufacturing export technological complexity. Additionally, higher environmental regulatory stringency in the Central and Western regions tends to increase enterprise costs, thereby hindering the improvement of provincial manufacturing export technological complexity, whereas such effects are not significant in the Eastern region. Therefore, local governments should adopt moderate environmental regulation and create a favorable environment for technology market development, providing tailored policy support based on local conditions.