Prior research on the effectiveness of improving environmental performance has acknowledged the importance of domestic research and development (RD) activities. However, these studies remain general and ambiguous because they assume that all RD operations are associated with environmental performance. The corresponding empirical evidence is inexact and ambiguous. In this study, we focus on the effect of green RD activities on SO2 emission. Considering that heterogeneity exists in green RD activities, we divide them into two groups for two purposes. The empirical results, explored based on China's interprovincial data between 2000 and 2016, suggest that green RD activities critically influence the reduction of SO2 emissions. However, the RD activities of different purposes show statistically differentiated effects on SO2 emissions. Primarily, utility-type RD activities show the most significant positive impact on SO2 emissions reduction. Subsequent research based on the panel threshold also indicates that the impact of green RD activities on SO2 emissions shows nonlinear characteristics, depending on the technology's absorptive ability.
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