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This paper tests the pollution haven hypothesis by examining the relationship between environmental regulation and foreign investment with consideration of the role of corporate social responsibility, which has so far been neglected. Using multinationals’ investment data from China, our results in general support the pollution haven hypothesis that less stringent environmental regulation is more attractive for multinationals to invest in China, but high social responsibility can counteract attractiveness of weak environmental regulation.

The central debate on pollution havens concerns whether the level of environmental regulation in developing countries influences foreign investment location decisions. Most empirical studies are based on aggregate data, while micro-level evidence is relatively lacking in the literature. To fill this research gap, this paper tests for the existence of intracountry pollution havens in China by estimating the determinants of foreign investment flows based on a large firm-level panel dataset. Evidence from this study supports the existence of pollution havens within China in certain industries. However, the sensitivity of foreign investment to environmental regulation varies significantly across industries with different pollution characteristics. Furthermore, when the impact of government subsidies on foreign investment is accounted for, the results show that subsidies can compensate for pollution treatment costs in provinces with stricter environmental regulation.

The study examines the presence of the pollution haven or pollution halo hypothesis in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) and Next-11 economies. Hence, it empirically tests the direct impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the ecological footprint. Further, it explores the moderating role of green innovation on the nexus between FDI and ecological footprint.

The study uses the Driscoll–Kraay (DK) standard error panel regression technique to examine the long-run elasticities amongst the variables for the group of emerging countries, BRICS and Next-11, during the period of 1992 to 2018. Further, statistical robustness is demonstrated using the fully modified ordinary least squares technique.

The empirical finding shows that FDI degrades environmental quality by raising the ecological footprint. Thus, it proves that FDI is a source of pollution haven in BRICS and Next-11 countries. However, green innovation negatively moderates the relationship between FDI and ecological footprint. That means the joint impact of green innovation, and FDI proves the presence of the pollution halo hypothesis. Further, renewable energy consumption is reducing the ecological footprint, but economic growth and industrialisation are worsening the environmental quality.

This study offers policy implications for governments and policymakers to promote environmental sustainability by improving green innovation and allowing FDI that encourages clean and advanced technology.

No prior studies examine the moderating role of green innovation on the relationship between FDI and ecological footprint in the context of emerging countries.

This paper aims to, under the framework of the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH), test the theory that foreign direct investment (FDI) creates an intra-host country pollution haven in developing nations by studying the contemporary case of China.

This empirical analysis has used a panel dataset of 30 provinces that was analyzed for the period of 1997-2011. An Oaxaca decomposition was also implemented to examine the effects of environmental stringency on regional pollution.

The estimates indicate that openness to FDI generally appears to be good for the environment. The results of estimation show that the western region of China has developed a potential “comparative advantage” in pollution-intensive industries, thanks to the strong incentive of economic expansion. However, further estimates concerning the location decisions of FDI suggest that the providers of FDI still prefer to locate in the coastal regions of China, where a tighter environmental regulation policy has been imposed. The findings suggest that the better infrastructure and technology spillover of environmental policy-making might be more attractive to FDI than comparatively weak environmental stringency.

This study applies a model advanced in previous theoretical literature which divides the effects of trade into the categories of scale, technique and composition. It also contributes to the understanding of the PHH in the context of intra-host country analysis.

The critical issue in the debate over the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) is whether the location choice of international investment is influenced by the stringency of environmental regulation. So far previous empirical studies focused on the outward investment from developed countries, while little work has been done on the issue from developing countries. To fill the gap, this paper selects data from China enterprises, using a Logit estimation to determine whether there is a pollution haven effect in the location choice of developing countries’ outward investment. Our results show that Chinese enterprises are attracted by countries with lax environmental regulations; resource-intensive enterprises from China are more sensitive to the stringency of regulation than are technology-intensive enterprises. We contribute to the literature in two ways. First, we provide new evidence in support of the PHH by analyzing investment from developing countries. Further, we show that differences exist in the FDI behavior between resource-intensive and technology-intensive enterprises. Based on this finding, we explain why some previous studies have not found robust evidence of the PHH.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on pollution emissions and how environmental regulation affects this relationship.

In the empirical research, the authors selected panel data for 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2019 as samples. First, the authors used the instrumental variable method to verify the existence of the above hypotheses in China. Then, the authors analyzed the moderating effect of different types of environmental regulations on the environmental effects of FDI. Next, in further discussion, the authors analyzed the difference between the environmental effect and the moderating effect in different time periods and regions, respectively. Finally, the authors discussed whether the different intensities of environmental regulations lead to the transfer effect of FDI in choosing investment destinations.

The result shows that FDI can help reduce pollution emissions and create a “pollution halo” effect, which is enhanced by command-and-control regulation but suppressed by market-based incentives. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party has weakened the pollution halo effect of FDI, while the environmental effect of FDI in the eastern region is not significant, but in the middle and western regions, there is a significant pollution halo effect and a positive moderating effect of environmental regulations. Finally, further analysis reveals that FDI has a transfer effect under command-and-control environmental regulations.

First, the main purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between FDI and pollution emissions from the perspective of heterogeneous environmental regulation. Therefore, there is no detailed discussion on their effect mechanism of them. Second, limited by data, the authors adopt the single index to measure the stringency index of command-and-control and market-based incentive environmental regulations in China. The single index may not be able to fully reflect the intensity of regional environmental regulation, so the construction of a composite indicator is necessary. These shortcomings are the focus of the authors' future research.

Under the guidance of high-quality development, the conclusions above can provide reference for adjusting FDI policies and improving environmental regulation policies.

The innovations in this paper can be summarized as the following four dimensions: First, the authors use the instrumental variable (IV) method to address endogeneity in the relationship between FDI and pollution emission, which can further ensure the robustness of the research results and increases the credibility of the paper. Second, the authors distinguish between two types of environmental regulations to investigate their moderating effect on the environmental impact of FDI. Third, the authors consider the temporal and spatial heterogeneity of both the environmental effects of FDI and the moderating effect of regulation. Last, the authors analyze the spatial spillover of environmental regulation through the study of the transfer effect.

Textile, listed as one of the highly environmentally sensitive goods, its trade is susceptible to be influenced by the implementation of stringent environmental policies. This paper aims to investigate the long-run relationship between revealed comparative advantage (RCA) and Environmental Policy Stringency Index (EPSI) for textile exports of G20 countries in panel data setup.

Apart from trend analysis, the authors have employed Pedroni and Westerlund panel cointegration method and fully modified ordinary least square (FMOLS) method to study the long-run relationship between RCA and EPSI in presence of cross-sectional dependence.

A strong link between trade and environmental stringency is observed for textile in the present study. For G20 countries, slight evidence of the Pollution Haven Hypothesis has also been witnessed in the study. Correspondingly, the results reveal the presence of long-run association between the variables under study, implying that stringent environmental policies reduce RCA for some countries, whereas some countries witness the Porter hypothesis.

The results imply that policy formulation should not aim at limiting the efforts of connecting RCA to environmental stringency but to set trade policies in a wider framework, considering environmental concerns, as these are inseparable subjects. However, this study also provides relevant real-world implications that can support further research.

The present study has important implications for textile exporters such as green innovations. The Porter hypothesis can be a beneficial tool for G20 exporters in enhancing their export performance, especially for the ones dealing in environmentally sensitive goods. This study offers relevant policy implications and provides directions for future research on global trade and environment nexus.

This study deals in a debatable area of research that evaluates the interlinkages between environmental stringency and global trade flows in the G20 countries. An important observation of the study is the asymmetrical nature of policy stringency across different countries and its impact on trade. The unavailability of updated data is the limitation of the present study.

The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between air pollution and life expectancy considering the roles of institutional quality, agricultural output, foreign direct investment (FDI) and other socio-economic variables in Nigeria from 1981Q1 to 2019Q4.

The study employed spliced quarterly data from annual series collected from the World Bank development indicators and Central Bank of Nigeria. The dynamic multivariate models were analysed using the vector error correction mechanism (VECM), variance decomposition and Granger causality techniques.

The VECM result indicated a statistically significant adverse effect of air pollution on life expectancy. However, institutional quality, gross domestic product per capita, agricultural output, government social expenditure and school enrolment rate ameliorate the adverse health effects of air pollution, while FDI had mixed effects on life expectancy at different significance levels and at varying lag lengths. The Granger causality result revealed a uni-directional causality from air pollution to life expectancy; bidirectional causal chain between agriculture, FDI, government social expenditure and life expectancy, while a uni-directional causal linkage run from life expectancy to income per head and from school enrolment to life expectancy respectively. However, there is no evidence of causation between institutional quality and life expectancy due to weak institutional quality, but foreign direct invest causes carbon emission in a uni-directional manner in line with pollution haven hypothesis.

The study's modelling is limited by not considering the resource curse variable in the model due to paucity of data. Nigeria is the biggest crude oil exporter in Africa and ranks 13th globally with daily output of about 2.4 m barrels. Thus, the negation of resource curse in air pollution–life expectancy nexus de-emphasises the effectiveness of rich resources on health and environment. Future studies could address this limitation by incorporating resource curse in environmental-health models for Nigeria.

It is imperative for the country to adopt stringent anti-air pollution strategies that would establish a balance between FDI attraction and agricultural expansion to the benefits of her citizens' longevity. Also, education should be considered as a strategic action to enhance life expectancy through expansion in the provision, accessibility and affordability to improved school enrolment rate. The choice of quarterly time series over annual data helped to establish the current relationship between air pollution and life expectancy using efficient estimators.

The study contributes to literature by disaggregating yearly series into quarterly series, which has implications for the efficiency of the estimates, unlike earlier studies which ignored this fundamental process. The result of this study produced reliable policy direction for improvement in life expectancy in an emerging economy since quarterly estimates are more robust and reliable for forecasting than its yearly counterpart. The outcome of the study extended the original tenets of the Grossman's health stock theory using the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) and pollution haven hypotheses (PHH).

This paper aims to clarify the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and carbon intensity. This study uses the dynamic panel data model to study and provide fresh evidence for the issue.

This study first uses the dynamic panel data model to consider the endogeneity problem, and applies a system-generalized method of moments estimator to study the effect of FDI on carbon intensity using the panel data of 188 countries during 1990-2013.

The result shows that FDI has a significant negative impact on carbon intensity of the host country. After considering the other factors, including share of fossil fuels, industrial intensity, urbanization level and trade openness, the impact of FDI on carbon intensity is still significantly positive. In addition, FDI also has a significant negative impact on carbon intensity of high-income countries and middle- and low-income countries.

This paper offers two contributions to the literature on the effect of FDI on carbon intensity. From a methodological perspective, this paper is the first to apply a dynamic panel data model to study the effect of FDI on carbon intensity using worldwide panel data. Second, this paper is the first to analyze the effect of FDI on carbon intensity in different countries with different income levels separately.

This purpose of this study is to explore the impact of global trend of economic integration and interconnectedness which has drawn the attention of world economies and their implications on trade inflow. This trajectory has its impact, either positive/negative, on key macroeconomic indicators, to say the least on environmental sustainability, especially emerging economies. To this end, the need to explore the connection between foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow and energy consumption amidst the wave of economic globalisation is timely and pertinent for the case of Turkey.

This study seeks to explore the interaction between the outlined variables in a carbon-income framework for annual time series data from 1970 to 2016. A series of econometrics strategies was used consisting of unit root tests to examine the stationarity properties of the highlighted series. Subsequently, Pesaran’s Bounds testing technique is used to explore the long-run equilibrium relationship between the highlighted variables in conjunction with the Johansen cointegration test. For long-run regression coefficients, Pesaran’s autoregressive distributed lag and dynamic ordinary least squares methodology are used, and innovative accounting approaches are used to explore the responsiveness of each variable on another.

Empirical results validate the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) in the long run for the case of Turkey. Thus suggesting that FDI inflow induced environmental degradation in Turkey. Additionally, this study observed that renewable energy, on the contrary, improves the quality of the environment. This study also affirms the presence of the environmental Kuznets curve phenomenon, indicating that Turkey, at its early stage of economic trajectory, emphasis is on economic growth rather than environmental quality. This suggests a need for more deliberate action(s) by the government administrators to pursue cleaner FDI inflow and energy technologies and strategies to foster a clean environment in Turkey and a cleaner ecosystem at large.

This study is unique in its choice of variables which is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda to be achieved by 2030 and is very limited in the extant literature. From the economic perspective, the effect of the PHH is of interest especially to ascertain the extent the interplay among the variables has on the economy of Turkey. The empirical insights on PHH hypothesis have received less documentation in the extant literature especially for emerging economy like Turkey. Thus, this study seeks to revisit this theme for Turkey with aim to presents environmentally sustainable strategies without compromise for economic growth. Thus, this study seeks to revisit this theme.