Environmental information disclosure and green technology innovation: Empirical evidence from China

Environmental information disclosure is a dominant feature of good ecological environment construction, which reflects the emergence of social supervision. In this paper, we employ the Difference in Difference (DID) method, for 289 prefecture level cities in China that allows us to open up new empirical evidence of the effects on green technology innovation. The results indicate that disclosure of environmental information is more likely to promote green technologies, which is measured by green patent application. As substitute indicators, green patent of utility model and invention patent further confirm the result by robust test. To address the potential regional heterogeneity, we find eastern China might be the place where the above three green patent application have their most pronounced effects. Pollution Information Transparency Index (PITI) was designed to spur innovation, which also has been proved in our paper. Furthermore, green innovation environment, pollution charges and industrial structure have been identified as mediator variables, and foreign investment, government education and technology expenditure in terms of capital investment have been testified as moderator variables.

Automated summary

This study examines the impact of environmental information disclosure on green technology innovation in Chinese cities using the Difference in Difference (DID) method. The results show that environmental information disclosure is likely to promote green technologies, particularly in eastern China. The study also identifies the green innovation environment, pollution charges, and industrial structure as mediator variables, and foreign investment, government education, and technology expenditure as moderator variables.