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The Impact of Environmental Regulation on New Quality Productive Forces in Manufacturing

Author(s)

Ziming Wang*

Affiliation(s)

School of Management, Xi'an Polytechnic University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China *Corresponding Author

Abstract

Under the current era background of high - quality development and green transformation, the optimization and perfection of the environmental supervision mechanism have become a focus issue in the academic circle and the policy - making field. The observed effect is intimately linked to the process of cultivating new quality productive forces (hereinafter referred to as NQPF) within the manufacturing sector. Taking A-share listed manufacturing firms from 2015 to 2022 as the sample, this study aims to systematically examine how environmental regulation influences manufacturing NQPF, and to fully uncover the transmission pathways and inherent logic connecting them. According to the extant literature, environmental regulation plays a markedly positive role in enhancing the NQPF of the manufacturing sector. Through the elimination of abnormal observations, the use of the instrumental variable method to control endogenous bias and other multi-dimensional robustness tests, the reliability of the above conclusion has been further confirmed. The mechanism analysis identifies green technology innovation (hereinafter referred to as GT) as the core transmission mechanism through which environmental regulation fuels the leap in NQPF. By strengthening green technology R&D intensity and systematically accumulating green patent assets, environmental regulation effectively drives enterprises toward a fundamental reinvention of their production paradigms and a structural shift in their growth momentum. This study aims to uncover the intrinsic linkages between environmental regulation and the high-quality development of enterprises, and to establish an innovative analytical framework. The findings are intended to offer policymakers scientifically grounded and actionable decision support, thereby assisting in refining environmental regulation pathways, advancing the green transformation of the manufacturing sector, and fostering its coordinated development with NQPF.

Keywords

Environmental Regulation; New Quality Productive Forces; Manufacturing Industry; Green Transformation; Green Innovation

References

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