Assessing the impact of trade policy uncertainty on pollution emissions: an analysis of Chinese firms' green transformation.

Oscillations in the global trade milieu have exacerbated the ambiguity experienced by Chinese enterprises, thereby influencing their ecological transition. The ongoing debate over whether trade uncertainty augments corporate emissions, exacerbating pollution, or attenuates emissions, encouraging sustainable production, has yet to reach a consensus. The current investigation employs a textual analysis methodology to explore the influence of trade policy uncertainty on pollution emissions, by sourcing indicators of trade policy uncertainty that echo firm-level uncertainty within the period 2008 to 2021. Utilizing the fixed effects model for our analysis, the findings substantiate that escalated uncertainty at the micro-level catalyzes an increase in pollution emissions originating from firms. Crucially, we find that risk diversification and innovation bolster firms' capacities to manage pollution under escalating uncertainty. Furthermore, our estimation reveals that enterprises with low market competitiveness, high financial constraints, and moderate overseas market share are most significantly impacted, whereas those with robust patent portfolios remain largely unaffected. This study carries considerable implications for firms striving to achieve an ecological transition and offers insights for fostering sustainable and high-quality global economic development.

The impact of manufacturing servitization on consumption-based carbon rebound effect: A global value chain research perspective.

This study investigates the causal effect of manufacturing servitization on the consumption-based carbon rebound effect, employing the empirical approach based on the value-added trade and SBM-DEA model. The results show that improving the servitization level will lead to a significant decrease in the consumption-based carbon rebound effect of the global manufacturing industry. Moreover, the main paths through which the manufacturing servitization inhibits the consumption-based carbon rebound effect are the human capital and government management. We also find that the impact of manufacturing servitization is more substantial in advanced manufacturing and developed economies, which is smaller in manufacturing sectors with higher global value chain positions and lower export penetration levels. These findings suggest that improving the level of manufacturing servitization helps alleviate the consumption-based carbon rebound effect and is conducive to achieving the target of global carbon emission reduction.