How do Economic Openness and R&D Investment Affect Green Economic Growth?—Evidence from China

Abstract The increased concern on green economic growth has facilitated the shift of many countries from simply pursuing economic growth to a green economy growth mode for the protection of resources and the environment. Under this background, we calculate China’s green GDP and its growth rate and study the impact of economic openness and R&D investment on green economic growth. We apply the established open economic endogenous growth model to the green economic growth and China’s provincial panel data to test the relationship among three factors. Results show that economic openness and green economic growth have a nonlinear negative U-shaped relationship. Although R&D investment scale is not conducive to green economic growth in the short term, it has a positive impact on green economic growth. We also need to pay attention to the increased pollution caused by economic openness in heterogeneous areas in China. The impact of economic openness on green economic growth has different performance: insignificant (eastern region), positive U-shaped (central region), and negative U-shaped (western region). The impact of R&D scale on green economic growth is positive for a long time, but the impact is negative in the eastern and western regions in the current period. Therefore, economic openness and R&D investment must be increased while focusing on coordinating regional development to achieve green economic growth.