Whether foreign direct investment can promote high-quality economic development under environmental regulation: evidence from the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China

Based on the development concepts of “innovation, coordination, green, opening and sharing,” a high-quality economic evaluation index system is constructed using city-level data in Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), China. Further, the spatial lag model is used to empirically study the effects of environmental regulation, foreign direct investment, and its interaction term on the high-quality economic development. The results show that environmental regulation is conducive to promoting high-quality economic development, which provides a certain empirical basis for the Porter Hypothesis. In addition, foreign direct investment also plays a significant positive role. Specifically, environmental regulation has positive impacts on the relationship between foreign direct investment and the high-quality economic development. Finally, this paper puts forward some countermeasures and suggestions, such as improving environmental regulation policy and actively introducing high-quality foreign direct investment.