Does FDI Bring Environmental Knowledge Spillovers to Developing Countries? The Role of the Local Industrial Structure
研究利用2003-2012年中国280个城市面板数据，发现FDI带来正向环境知识溢出，但专业化城市会锁定技术路径、削弱吸收，而多样化城市促进知识交叉、降低污染强度。
This paper examines the environmental knowledge externalities of FDI within and across cities in an emerging economy context. It argues that the extent of these environmental externalities is contingent upon local industrial agglomeration. Using a panel dataset of 280 Chinese prefectural cities from 2003 to 2012, we employ a spatial economic approach. Although limited to evidence from soot and $$\hbox {SO}_{2}$$ pollutants, our results suggest that FDI brings overall positive environmental knowledge externalities to a region, and also spillovers to nearby regions. Specialised cities may lock into a particular technological path, attenuating the absorption and diffusion of a variety of FDI environmental knowledge. Conversely, diversified cities promote cross-fertilisation of environmental knowledge and mitigate local pollution intensity at the aggregated city level. This study adds to the literature by highlighting the importance of considering both the spatiality of FDI and industrial structure in understanding FDI environmental knowledge spillovers.