School of Economics and Trade, Hunan University, Changsha, 410006, China.
Hunan University of Finance and Economics, Changsha, 410205, China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2020 Jun;27(17):21604-21620. doi: 10.1007/s11356-020-08566-x. Epub 2020 Apr 11.
Emission trading system is a significant market-based environmental regulation tool worldwide. This study fills existing knowledge gap on whether ETSs have "weak" and "strong" version of Porter hypothesis effects in China, by examining the effects of the Chinese SO emission trading on corporate innovation and productivity. Using the micro-data of domestic-listed manufacturing companies from 2004 to 2015, this study regarded China's SO emission trading system as a quasi-natural experiment by applying a difference-in-difference framework to eliminate endogenous problems. It was found that the SO emission trading system significantly promoted corporate innovation but did not have a significant effect on corporate productivity. The cause analysis showed that suboptimal institutional context and lack of corporate dynamic response led to the failure of strong Porter hypothesis effect. In addition, small- and medium-sized enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises gained greater innovation compensation effects of the emission trading system. This research believed that, the design, institutional context, and market incentives of emission trading systems need to be improved from the top down, to achieve the dual goal of environmental sustainability and economic growth.
排放交易系统是全球范围内一种重要的基于市场的环境监管工具。本研究通过检验中国二氧化硫排放交易计划对企业创新和生产力的影响，填补了现有知识空白，即排放交易系统在中国是否存在“弱”和“强”版本的波特假说效应。本研究利用 2004 年至 2015 年国内上市制造业公司的微观数据，通过应用双重差分框架来消除内生性问题，将中国的二氧化硫排放交易系统视为准自然实验。结果表明，二氧化硫排放交易系统显著促进了企业创新，但对企业生产力没有显著影响。原因分析表明，次优的制度背景和企业缺乏动态响应导致了强波特假说效应的失败。此外，中小企业和非国有企业从排放交易系统中获得了更大的创新补偿效应。本研究认为，需要从顶层设计、制度背景和市场激励等方面改进排放交易系统，以实现环境可持续性和经济增长的双重目标。
