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The impact of FDI on environmental pollution in China: evidence from spatial panel data

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Abstract

With the rapid development of the economy, China’s environmental problems remain prominent, and ecological environmental protection has far to go. Many factors work together to affect environmental pollution. In this study, based on the spatial correlation of environmental situation between adjacent regions, spatial autoregressive models are constructed to examine the impacts of foreign direct investment (FDI) on environmental pollution in China. We find an inverted U-shaped relationship between FDI and environmental situation. The study further investigates the mediating effect of economic scale, technology, and industrial structure between FDI and environmental situation. The results show that regions with a larger economic scale and better industrial structure experience a greater FDI impact on environmental situation, but technological level does not serve as a moderator in this study. Our findings have important implications for environmental pollution control and provide important insights for China into a new stage of high-quality development.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request

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Acknowledgements

This study thanks the financial support by the two fundings.

Funding

This article is financially supported by the Chinese Fund for the Humanities and Social Sciences “Research on the Marginal Transformation Path of China’s Manufacturing Export Growth under the Constraints of Energy and Environment” (16BJY076) and Eurasia Foundation from Asia International Cooperation Project “Research on International Cooperation and Development of Asian Community” (20EFC001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Business School, University of Jinan, Jinan, 250002, China

    Tongxin An, Chengyun Xu & Xianchun Liao

  2. Shandong Longshan Research Center for Green Economy, University of Jinan, Jinan, 250002, China

    Tongxin An & Xianchun Liao

  3. Institute of Green Development, University of Jinan, 336 Nanxinzhuangxi Road, Jinan, 250002, Shandong, China

    Xianchun Liao

Authors
  1. Tongxin An
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  2. Chengyun Xu
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  3. Xianchun Liao
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Tongxin An and Xianchun Liao. Data curation: Chengyun Xu. Formal analysis and investigation: Tongxin An and Chengyun Xu. Funding acquisition: Tongxin An. Methodology: Tongxin An and Chengyun Xu. Project administration: National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences, Eurasia Foundation (from Asia). Resources: China Statistical Yearbook, China Environmental Statistical Yearbook, China Population Statistical Yearbook, China Energy Statistical Yearbook, National Bureau of Statistics, regional statistical yearbooks, and wind database. Software: Stata15.0. Supervision: Tongxin An and Xianchun Liao. Validation: Tongxin An and Xianchun Liao. Visualization: Chengyun Xu. Writing-original draft preparation: Tongxin An and Chengyun Xu. Writing-review and editing: Xianchun Liao. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xianchun Liao.

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An, T., Xu, C. & Liao, X. The impact of FDI on environmental pollution in China: evidence from spatial panel data. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 44085–44097 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13903-9

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