Relationship between cross-regional transfer and the environment based on the coal enterprises in China

Due to the reformation and expansion in China during the past 40 years, rapid economic growth has occurred. This has been accompanied by increased resource dependence, leading to transfer of resource-based enterprises from the eastern to the midwestern regions. A comprehensive evaluation of the environmental impact of this transfer pattern will help plan the sustainable development of resource-oriented enterprises in transferring areas, and it will be beneficial to industrial development in the undertaking areas. This study systematically analyzes the mechanisms of environmental impact, and the results show that the cross-regional transfer can not only degrade the ecological environment, but also improve it, such that the resultant impact is dependent on the interaction between the increasing effect and weakening effect of environmental stress. Therefore, this study used a threshold panel model based on panel data from 2000 to 2015 for five provinces in Midwestern China to explore the nonlinear relationship between the transfer of resource-based enterprises and the environment under different intensity levels of environmental regulation. The empirical results indicated the occurrence of two thresholds, and the relationship between the two is an inverted U-shaped. The results of this study will provide a useful strategy for the eastern enterprises to reasonably transfer and a reference for the Midwest to develop effective ecological principles and infrastructure.