The Impact of environmental-related technology innovation on green growth in China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, and the Philippines

Abstract

As the problems caused by environmental damage become urgent, like climate change, environmental degradation and biodiversity reduction, green growth becomes an important strategy to achieve sustainable goals. This study analyzes the environmental-related technology innovation (ETI) effect on green growth in China, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and South Korea from 1990 to 2021. Firstly, this study constructs a green growth index system from three dimensions (Environmental and resource productivity, the environmental dimension of quality of life, and social economic context) and uses the entropy-weight TOPSIS method to calculate the index. Then, the panel least square method is employed to analyze the ETI effect on green growth. The results show that ETI can have a significantly positive impact on green growth. Moreover, this study adds five control variables to the regression analysis. The results show that innovation, export of goods and services, and human capital can positively impact green growth. However, the urbanization level and technology negatively impact green growth. Furthermore, this study analyzes the heterogeneity of the five countries as well. Based on empirical results, the author suggests that the government should encourage environmental-related technology innovation, which is beneficial to improve countries' green growth.