Environmental regulation and economic growth: A new perspective based on technical level and healthy human capital

Environmental regulation provides new constraints and opportunities for economic growth. Based on OLG (Overlapping Generation) model, this paper re-characterizes the relationship between the intensity of environmental regulations and economic growth rate from two perspectives: technical level and healthy human capital. By using the panel data of 31 provinces and cities in China from 2004 to 2017, empirical tests were conducted through the mediation effect method and the contrast groups of OLS (Ordinary Least Squares) regression experiment to support the theoretical part. The results show that: (1) The non-linear relationship between environmental regulations and economic growth rate shows an "inverted U-shaped" curve, where the economic growth rate displays a correlation with the intensity of environmental regulations from positive to negative; (2) The internal action path of environmental regulations on economic growth shows the differentiated characteristics according to different industrial types. Specifically, under the established intensity of environmental regulation, the effect of regulatory policies on labor-intensive enterprises is more based on the technological level, while it is more inclined to the path of healthy human capital for capital-intensive enterprises. This paper enriches the theoretical system of economic growth under environmental regulations, which has important reference significance for promoting green development and ecological civilization construction.