环境权益交易与企业费用黏性——来自排污权交易准自然实验的证据

Environmental Rights Trading Schemes and Firm’s Stickiness of Cost:Evidences from a Quasi-Natural Experiment on SO2 Emissions Trading

使用中国环境权益交易市场2007年在试点地区开展的排污权交易政策作为准自然实验,探究排污权交易对试点地区企业费用黏性的政策效果。运用中国A股上市企业2002—2012年数据,通过双重差分模型实证检验发现:排污权交易显著提升了试点企业的费用黏性,提升效果达67.65%,一系列稳健性检验也证实了排污权交易与试点企业费用黏性之间的因果关系。排污权交易政策通过创新激励效应刺激企业进行自主创新进而提升企业费用黏性,且发明型创新专利申请数目对二者的中介效应最为显著,实用型和外观型创新专利申请数目的中介效应均不显著。排污权交易政策对试点企业费用黏性的作用强度还依赖于行业要素密集度、企业融资约束水平和代理成本。相较于技术密集型行业,在劳动密集型和资本密集型行业中,排污权交易对费用黏性的提升作用更强;企业融资约束程度或代理成本越低,排污权交易对试点企业费用黏性的提升作用越强。

Using China’s SO2 emission trading scheme of the environmental rights trading markets in the trial regions in 2007 for a quasi-natural experiment,this paper tries to explore the effects of the China’s SO2 emission trading scheme in the trial regions on firm’s cost stickiness.By making use of the data of China’s A share listed firms during 2002-2012,it is found through an empirical test with a difference-in-difference model that the emission trading scheme has significantly increased the cost stickiness of the pilot enterprises,and the improved effect reached 67.75%.The causal relationship has also been verified by a series of robust tests.Through the innovation excitation effect,the emission trading policy can stimulate enterprises to carry out independent innovation so as to improve their cost stickiness;and the number of invention-innovated patent applications has the most significant mediating effect on the two,while the mediating effect of the number of practical and appearance-type innovative patent applications is not significant.The intensity of the emission trading policy on the cost stickiness of the pilot enterprise also depends on the factor intensity of industry,financing constraint level and agency cost of the enterprise.Compared to the technology-intensive industries,the emission trading scheme has a stronger effect on cost stickiness in the enterprises in labor-intensive and capital-intensive industries.The lower the financing constraint degree of the enterprise or the agency cost is,the stronger the effect of the emission trading scheme on the cost stickiness of the pilot enterprises will be.