Effect of environmental regulations on China's graphite export

The disparity between import and export prices of China's graphite products indicates that China suffers a heavy loss of graphite resources. China's graphite resource abundance doesn't transform into an economic advantage. This paper tries to promote sustainable use of China's graphite resources by investigating the effect of environmental regulations on China's graphite resource export. Based on the gravity model and the panel data of the top 30 countries that imported graphite resources from China during 2005–2014, economical mass, population, graphite export price, export duty refund (EDR), language, recession and political conflicts are selected as measurable indicators of environmental regulations to study how the corresponding changes affect graphite export values. The results demonstrate that the determinants of China's graphite export values include economical mass, export price, export duty refund, and language. Policy recommendations are then raised in order to improve sustainable development of China's graphite industry.