Does China’s low-carbon pilot policy promote foreign direct investment? An empirical study based on city-level panel data of China

Abstract

As an important driving force of China’s economic growth, foreign direct investment (FDI) may be affected by China’s low-carbon pilot policy. Therefore, this paper regards the lowcarbon pilot policy as a quasi-natural experiment, and uses the difference-in-difference (DID) model and the panel data of 189 cities in China from 2011 to 2018 to explore the actual impact and intermediary mechanism of low-carbon pilot policy on FDI. The study found that low-carbon pilot policy has a significant promotion effect on FDI, and industrial optimization and upgrading is an important way. At the same time, we construct the difference-in-difference-in-difference (DDD) model, and discuss the heterogeneity of policy effect caused by resource endowments and the individual characteristics of government officials in the process of policy implementation. The results indicate that resource-rich cities can enhance the promotion effect of low-carbon pilot policy on FDI. Similarly, when the mayor of the pilot city is a female, or obtains a master’s degree or a doctorate degree, or majored in non-economics, respectively, the policy effect will be more obvious. In addition, in order to verify the reliability of the research conclusions, this paper also uses a placebo test and data truncation to conduct a series of robustness tests.