College of Management and Economics, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China.
College of Management and Economics, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China.
J Environ Manage. 2021 Oct 1;295:113112. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113112. Epub 2021 Jun 24.
Taking environmental protection into consideration, China introduced the new Environmental Protection Tax Law in 2018, which levies taxes for pollutants with higher standards. The vast majority of existing studies have investigated the impacts of environmental taxes (ETs) at the city level or province level. In contrast, we estimate their effects on pollutant reductions for fossil-fuel power plants in 30 provinces in China. Our results show that ETs have positive effects on pollutant emission reductions compared with the pollution discharge fee policy. We provide empirical evidence that sulfur dioxide (SO), nitrogen oxide (NOx), and dust from fossil fuel power plants significantly decreased by 2.186 (7.7%), 1.550 (6.84%), and 1.064 (16.1%) tons, respectively, after the implementation of the policy. Moreover, there is an inverted U-shape relationship between pollutant emission reductions and tax rates. We offer further evidence that they play a limited role in high environmental regulation regions. Finally, we compare how different types of firms responded to ETs. The results show that ETs have limited effects on pollutant reductions for large state-owned coal power plants, which may have achieved environmental transformation to a certain extent. Therefore, policymakers could consider promoting tax rates in areas with low tax rates and strengthening tax breaks to stimulate firms to achieve pollutant reduction. In addition, local governments should set tax rates taking regional environmental regulation levels and firm heterogeneity into account.
考虑到环境保护，中国于 2018 年引入了新的《环境保护税法》，对标准更高的污染物征税。绝大多数现有研究都在城市或省级层面上调查环境税的影响。相比之下，我们估计了它们对中国 30 个省份的化石燃料电厂减少污染物排放的影响。我们的研究结果表明，与排污收费政策相比，环境税对污染物减排有积极影响。我们提供了经验证据，表明实施该政策后，化石燃料电厂的二氧化硫（SO）、氮氧化物（NOx）和烟尘排放量分别显著减少了 2.186（7.7%）、1.550（6.84%）和 1.064（16.1%）吨。此外，污染物减排与税率之间存在倒 U 型关系。我们进一步提供了证据表明，在环境监管力度较高的地区，环境税的作用有限。最后，我们比较了不同类型的企业对环境税的反应。结果表明，环境税对大型国有煤电企业的污染物减排作用有限，这些企业可能在一定程度上已经实现了环境转型。因此，政策制定者可以考虑在低税率地区提高税率，并加强税收减免，以刺激企业实现污染物减排。此外，地方政府应考虑到区域环境监管水平和企业异质性来设定税率。
