IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i2p1031-d1026609.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Global Value Chain Embedment Contribute to Environmental Pollution in Emerging Economies?

Author

Listed:
  • Guimei Zhang

    (School of Economics and Management, Sanming University, Sanming 353000, China)

  • Guangyue Liu

    (School of Finance and Trade, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110000, China)

Abstract

Scientifically judging the environmental effects of embedding in the global value chain (GVC) has important theoretical significance and practical value, especially for emerging economies, but there are few studies on the relationship between GVC embedment and environmental pollution in emerging economies. Based on the classical theory of Grossman, this study analyzed the mechanism framework of GVC embedment on environmental pollution and then used the panel data of 16 emerging economies from 1998 to 2019 for empirical tests. After using the FGLS regression model and a series of empirical tests, the main conclusions are as follows. (1) The impact of GVC embedment on environmental pollution in emerging economies includes five effects. The scale effect brings about the expansion of production activities and increases the emission of environmental pollutants. The technological effect refers to improvements in the level of clean technology, which are brought about by the acquisition and acceptance of “technology spillover” in the value chain. The structural effect is the reduction in pollutant emissions and improvement in the environment through economic upgrading. The income effect is a “demand push” to improve the environment and reduce pollution triggered by an increase in national income. The lock-in effect means that the leaders of the value chain hinder emerging economies from achieving high-level economic upgrades, intending to lock them into the links with relatively high pollution. These effects are not static but are interlinked and affect each other. (2) The results of the empirical study show that embedding in the GVC initially has a negative impact on the environment, but with the deepening of GVC embedment, environmental pollution will decrease; that is, it shows an inverted U-shaped relationship. (3) The density of energy use, the share of fossil fuels, and the per capita income of emerging economies are positively correlated with environmental pollution, while population density and manufacturing share are negatively correlated. This study also provides suggestions on how to improve the environment in the process of GVC embedment in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Guimei Zhang & Guangyue Liu, 2023. "Does Global Value Chain Embedment Contribute to Environmental Pollution in Emerging Economies?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-17, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:2:p:1031-:d:1026609
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/2/1031/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/2/1031/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pol Antras & Davin Chor & Thibault Fally & Russell Hillberry, 2012. "Measuring the Upstreamness of Production and Trade Flows," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(3), pages 412-416, May.
    2. Xiao, Hao & Sun, Ke-Juan & Bi, Hui-Min & Xue, Jin-Jun, 2019. "Changes in carbon intensity globally and in countries: Attribution and decomposition analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C), pages 1492-1504.
    3. He, Jie, 2006. "Pollution haven hypothesis and environmental impacts of foreign direct investment: The case of industrial emission of sulfur dioxide (SO2) in Chinese provinces," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 228-245, November.
    4. Wang, Jing & Wan, Guanghua & Wang, Chen, 2019. "Participation in GVCs and CO2 emissions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    5. Wang, Huiqing & Wei, Weixian, 2020. "Coordinating technological progress and environmental regulation in CO2 mitigation: The optimal levels for OECD countries & emerging economies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    6. Lenzen, Manfred, 1998. "Primary energy and greenhouse gases embodied in Australian final consumption: an input-output analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 495-506, May.
    7. Linda Kleemann & Awudu Abdulai, 2013. "The Impact Of Trade And Economic Growth On The Environment: Revisiting The Cross‐Country Evidence," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(2), pages 180-205, March.
    8. Chen, Hanxue & Wang, Shuhong & Song, Malin, 2021. "Global Environmental Value Chain Embeddedness and Enterprise Production Efficiency Improvement," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 278-290.
    9. Zhizhong Liu & Guangyue Liu & Xu Han & Yingna Chen, 2022. "Green Technology of Foreign Direct Investment on Public Health: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-16, October.
    10. Hummels, David & Ishii, Jun & Yi, Kei-Mu, 2001. "The nature and growth of vertical specialization in world trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 75-96, June.
    11. Gene M. Grossman & Alan B. Krueger, 1995. "Economic Growth and the Environment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(2), pages 353-377.
    12. Eskeland, Gunnar S. & Harrison, Ann E., 2003. "Moving to greener pastures? Multinationals and the pollution haven hypothesis," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 1-23, February.
    13. Zhenguo Wang & Yabin Zhang & Chun Liao & Hongshan Ai & Xiangyu Yang, 2022. "What contributes to the growth of China’s embodied CO2 emissions? Incorporating the global value chains concept," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(12), pages 1335-1351, March.
    14. Zhi Wang & Shang-Jin Wei & Xinding Yu & Kunfu Zhu, 2017. "Characterizing Global Value Chains: Production Length and Upstreamness," NBER Working Papers 23261, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Meng, Bo & Peters, Glen P. & Wang, Zhi & Li, Meng, 2018. "Tracing CO2 emissions in global value chains," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 24-42.
    16. Shi, Qiaoling & Zhao, Yuhuan & Qian, Zhiling & Zheng, Lu & Wang, Song, 2022. "Global value chains participation and carbon emissions: Evidence from Belt and Road countries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 310(C).
    17. Su, Bin & Thomson, Elspeth, 2016. "China's carbon emissions embodied in (normal and processing) exports and their driving forces, 2006–2012," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 414-422.
    18. Zhong, Zhangqi & Guo, Zhifang & Zhang, Jianwu, 2021. "Does the participation in global value chains promote interregional carbon emissions transferring via trade? Evidence from 39 major economies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    19. Baumol,William J. & Oates,Wallace E., 1988. "The Theory of Environmental Policy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521322249, September.
    20. Boutabba, Mohamed Amine, 2014. "The impact of financial development, income, energy and trade on carbon emissions: Evidence from the Indian economy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 33-41.
    21. Richard F. J. Haans & Constant Pieters & Zi-Lin He, 2016. "Thinking about U: Theorizing and testing U- and inverted U-shaped relationships in strategy research," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(7), pages 1177-1195, July.
    22. Ye, Chusheng & Ye, Qin & Shi, Xunpeng & Sun, Yongping, 2020. "Technology gap, global value chain and carbon intensity: Evidence from global manufacturing industries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    23. Sakai, Marco & Barrett, John, 2016. "Border carbon adjustments: Addressing emissions embodied in trade," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 102-110.
    24. Shujin Zhu & Yiding Tang & Xingzhi Qiao & Wanhai You & Cheng Peng, 2022. "Spatial Effects of Participation in Global Value Chains on CO2 Emissions: A Global Spillover Perspective," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(3), pages 776-789, February.
    25. Yeats, Alexander J., 1998. "Just how big is global production sharing?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1871, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Can Li & Qi He & Han Ji & Shengguo Yu & Jiao Wang, 2023. "Reexamining the Impact of Global Value Chain Participation on Regional Economic Growth: New Evidence Based on a Nonlinear Model and Spatial Spillover Effects with Panel Data from Chinese Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-31, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Huang, Yongming & Zhang, Yanan, 2023. "Digitalization, positioning in global value chain and carbon emissions embodied in exports: Evidence from global manufacturing production-based emissions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    2. Wang, Jing & Rickman, Dan S. & Yu, Yihua, 2022. "Dynamics between global value chain participation, CO2 emissions, and economic growth: Evidence from a panel vector autoregression model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    3. Shi, Qiaoling & Shan, Yuli & Zhong, Chao & Cao, Ye & Xue, Rui, 2022. "How would GVCs participation affect carbon intensity in the “Belt and Road Initiative” countries?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    4. Zhong, Zhangqi & Guo, Zhifang & Zhang, Jianwu, 2021. "Does the participation in global value chains promote interregional carbon emissions transferring via trade? Evidence from 39 major economies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    5. Zhang, Zengkai & Zhu, Kunfu, 2017. "Border carbon adjustments for exports of the United States and the European Union: Taking border-crossing frequency into account," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 201(C), pages 188-199.
    6. Shi, Qiaoling & Zhao, Yuhuan & Qian, Zhiling & Zheng, Lu & Wang, Song, 2022. "Global value chains participation and carbon emissions: Evidence from Belt and Road countries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 310(C).
    7. Hongwei Zhou & Yawen Kong & Shuguang Liu & Shan Feng, 2022. "Can Global Value Chains Embedment Reduce Carbon Emissions Embodied in Exports?—Empirical Test Based on the Manufacturing Industries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-20, December.
    8. Li, Guangqin & Zhang, Xi, 2023. "Does GVC embedding reduce carbon emissions? Empirical evidence from 218 Chinese cities," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 253-263.
    9. Wang, Jing & Wan, Guanghua & Wang, Chen, 2019. "Participation in GVCs and CO2 emissions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    10. Yan, Yunfeng & Wang, Ran & Zheng, Xiuxiu & Zhao, Zhongxiu, 2020. "Carbon endowment and trade-embodied carbon emissions in global value chains: Evidence from China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    11. Singhania, Monica & Saini, Neha, 2021. "Demystifying pollution haven hypothesis: Role of FDI," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 516-528.
    12. Yue Hua & Yue Lu & Ruili Zhao, 2022. "Global value chain engagement and air pollution: Evidence from Chinese firms," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(3), pages 708-727, July.
    13. Gao, Yuning & Yu, Anqi & Jiang, Jiatong & Pei, Jiansuo, 2024. "Will global value chain participation reduce environmental emissions? Evidence from Chinese firm-level data," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 512-526.
    14. Yaping He & Pengfei Sheng & Marek Vochozka, 2017. "Pollution caused by finance and the relative policy analysis in China," Energy & Environment, , vol. 28(7), pages 808-823, November.
    15. Fan, Xiaojia & Wu, Sanmang & Lei, Yalin & Li, Shantong & Li, Li, 2020. "Have China's resource-based regions improved in the division of GVCs? — Taking Shanxi Province as an example," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    16. Jingjing Huang & Yuan Zhong & Yabin Zhang, 2023. "Does Environmental Regulation of Cleaner Production Affect the Position of Enterprises in Global Value Chains? A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the Implementation of Cleaner Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-29, July.
    17. Mohamed Abdouli & Sami Hammami, 2017. "Economic growth, FDI inflows and their impact on the environment: an empirical study for the MENA countries," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 121-146, January.
    18. Yan, Yunfeng & Li, Xiyuan & Wang, Ran & Pan, An, 2023. "Global value chain and export-embodied carbon emissions: New evidence from foreign-invested enterprises," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    19. Tang, Yiding & Zhu, Shujin & Luo, Yan & Duan, Wenjing, 2022. "Input servitization, global value chain, and carbon mitigation: An input-output perspective of global manufacturing industry," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    20. Yan, Bingqian & Xia, Yan & Jiang, Xuemei, 2023. "Carbon productivity and value-added generations: Regional heterogeneity along global value chain," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 111-125.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:2:p:1031-:d:1026609. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.