Bu Caiqi, Zhang Kaixia
School of Economics, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Chongqing, 401120, China.
School of Economics, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, 611130, China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2022 Dec;29(56):84741-84761. doi: 10.1007/s11356-022-21379-4. Epub 2022 Jul 5.
The potentially serious economic consequences of China's severe air pollution problem cannot be overlooked, especially the impact on corporate innovation, which is a core driver guiding firms towards efficient and high-quality development. However, the existing literature has more often investigated the effect of pollution on corporate innovation from the perspective of environmental regulation, while relatively little research is available directly from the perspective of air pollution. In this study, for better causal identification and endogeneity treatment, we consider the Qin ling Mountains-Huai River heating policy as a quasi-natural experiment and explore for the first time the causal effect of air pollution on Chinese industrial firms' innovation through a geographical regression discontinuity (RD) approach. The results find that air pollution has a significant inhibitory effect on the industrial firms' innovation, especially for green innovation, where the innovation of state-owned enterprises, high pollution, and low monopoly firms are more sensitive to pollution. Specifically, a 1% increase in PM emissions leads to a 0.803% reduction in the corporate total innovation, a 0.924% reduction in invention patents, a 0.574% reduction in utility model patents, and a 1.087% reduction in design patents. We have verified the robustness of this core finding through a series of robustness checks including adjustment bandwidth, IV estimation, and placebo test. Further to this, we find that air pollution may negatively affect corporate innovation through three channels: crowding out R&D investment, reducing total factor productivity (TFP), and reducing labor supply and the proportion of highly skilled employees. This study sheds light on the severe losses caused by air pollution on corporate innovation capabilities at the micro-level, deepening the understanding of the economic harm caused by air pollution. This suggests that as firms strive to improve their innovative capacity and competitiveness, they should also be aware of environmental protection and green development; otherwise, unnecessary losses in innovation dynamics will be incurred.
中国严重空气污染问题所带来的潜在严重经济后果不容忽视，尤其是对企业创新的影响，而企业创新是引导企业实现高效和高质量发展的核心驱动力。然而，现有文献更多地是从环境规制的角度研究污染对企业创新的影响，而直接从空气污染角度进行的研究相对较少。在本研究中，为了更好地进行因果识别和内生性处理，我们将秦岭淮河供暖政策视为一项准自然实验，并首次通过地理回归断点（RD）方法探究空气污染对中国工业企业创新的因果效应。研究结果发现，空气污染对工业企业创新具有显著的抑制作用，尤其是对绿色创新，其中国有企业、高污染和低垄断企业的创新对污染更为敏感。具体而言，PM排放量每增加1%，企业总创新将减少0.803%，发明专利减少0.924%，实用新型专利减少0.574%，外观设计专利减少1.087%。我们通过一系列稳健性检验，包括调整带宽、工具变量估计和安慰剂检验，验证了这一核心发现的稳健性。此外，我们发现空气污染可能通过三个渠道对企业创新产生负面影响：挤出研发投资、降低全要素生产率（TFP）以及减少劳动力供给和高技能员工比例。本研究揭示了空气污染在微观层面给企业创新能力造成的严重损失，加深了对空气污染所造成经济危害的理解。这表明，企业在努力提高创新能力和竞争力的同时，也应重视环境保护和绿色发展；否则，将在创新动力方面产生不必要的损失。
