Foreign Import Competition and Green Innovation

The Impact of Chinese Trade Exposure on Technical Change in Europe

Bibliographic Data

ID21543371
AuthorsPaolo Bonnet (0000-0002-7836-1768, European Commission Joint Research Centre Ispra Italy, corresponding author), Alessandro Olper (0000-0001-9864-3431, Department of Environmental Science and Policy University of Milan Milan Italy, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume48
Issue6
Pages1418-1441
Publication date2025-06-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueWorld Economy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0378-5920 • E-ISSN: 1467-9701
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/twec.13698
OpenAlexW4409084562
LanguageEN
References cited22

This paper examines the impact of Chinese import competition on innovation. By using detailed patent information on the manufacturing industries of thirteen European countries and trade data from 1995 to 2015, we estimate and compare the effect of rising Chinese imports on the growth rates of industry‐wide patent stocks in generic and green inventions. The results reveal that Chinese import competition had no overall impact on total innovation at the industry level. However, the trade shock accelerated green innovation, particularly in lagging industries. We argue that an escape‐competition effect of European firms to crowd out and differentiate from Chinese competitors could motivate the empirical evidence. Our findings account for the endogeneity of trade exposure and are robust to confounding sectoral patenting trends

Business · Economics · International economics · International trade · Economic Growth and Productivity · Global Trade and Competitiveness · Global trade and economics

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