Are There the Impacts of Environmental Regulations on Manufacturing Export? Empirical Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing

Environmental regulation is an effective tool to control environmental problems caused by foreign trade. Research conclusions are inconsistent on the relationship between environmental regulations and exports. Based on the Heckscher-Ohlin-Vanek model, this paper provides an empirical analysis for examination the effect of environmental regulations on manufacturing exports, adopting panel data of 16 sectors from China’s manufacturing during 2005-2015. Material capital, human capital, technology input and foreign direct investment are simultaneously selected as independent variables to explore the export impact of corresponding changes in these endowments. The pollution intensity index was introduced to categorise different manufacturing sectors. Results indicated that China’s environmental regulations intensity play different roles in the manufacturing sectors with different pollution levels. Stricter environmental regulation improves the export of intensive pollution manufacturing sectors but hinders exports in light pollution sectors. Meanwhile, other endowment factors also exert varying effects in the light, moderate and intensive pollution manufacturing sectors.