The impact of air pollution on R&D input and output in China

Peng Liu; Daxin Dong; Zhuan Wang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141313

The impact of air pollution on R&D input and output in China

Sci Total Environ. 2021 Jan 15:752:141313. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141313. Epub 2020 Aug 3.

Authors

Peng Liu¹, Daxin Dong², Zhuan Wang³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Finance, Business School, Henan University, Kaifeng, China.
² School of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China. Electronic address: dongdaxin@swufe.edu.cn.
³ Social Security Administration, Department of Finance of Hainan Province, Haikou, China.

PMID: 32889294
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141313

Abstract

This study examines the impact of air pollution on research and development (R&D) in China on the basis of province-level data for the period 2007-2016. The study discovers a significant adverse impact of air pollution on both R&D input and output in China. The estimation results in this study are robust to the different indicators used to measure R&D input and output and control for possible endogeneity problems via the instrumental variable approach. According to our estimates, if the concentration of particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 μm or less (PM_2.5) increases by 1%, then the scales of annual R&D personnel, expenditures, and new patents will decline by 0.359%, 0.169%, and 0.293%, respectively. The findings indicate that air pollution is a considerable threat to innovation and technological progress in China.

Keywords: Air pollution; China; PM(2.5); R&D.