环境规制对企业利润率的影响机理研究——基于广西壮族自治区糖厂的微观数据

Influence Mechanism of Environmental Regulation on Enterprise Profitability:Evidence from Sugar Firms in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region,China

为深入探讨环境规制对企业绩效的影响机理,本文构建了成本最小化理论模型,从要素配置和技术创新两方面阐述了环境规制下企业的应对行为及其对利润率的影响。为了验证理论假说,本文选取2008—2016年广西壮族自治区的糖厂为研究样本,采用面板线性模型和门槛非线性模型进行实证分析。研究发现:企业未进行技术创新时,正式环境规制与利润率呈负相关;企业进行技术创新时,正式环境规制与糖厂利润率存在"抑制→促进→抑制"的倒"N"型门槛效应,非正式环境规制中仅教育水平与利润率存在"抑制→抑制"的单门槛效应。进一步的异质性分析表明,正式环境规制对大型糖厂和民营糖厂利润率的促进作用更明显,非正式环境规制中仅教育水平能够显著促进大型糖厂利润率提升。由此,本文不仅扩展了环境规制与企业绩效关系的机理探讨,同时也为政府制定差异化的环境规制政策提供了理论支撑。

To investigate the mechanism of how environmental regulation affects enterprise economic performance in depth,this paper builds a cost-minimization model to explore how firms comply with environmental regulation and its impact on profitability via economic factor allocation and technology innovation. Based on the panel data of sugar firms in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China during 2008—2016,the panel linear model and threshold model are employed for empirical analysis. Results confirm an inverted-N threshold effect( i.e.,suppress → promote → suppress) of formal environmental regulation and a suppressing effect of non-formal regulation( i.e.,education) on enterprise’s profitability when technological innovation exists;while formal environmental regulation has a linear negative effect when there is no technological innovation. Further heterogeneity analyses show that formal regulation has a significant positive effect on larger and non-state owned sugar enterprises. As for non-formal regulation,only the instrument of education promotes the larger enterprise’s profitability. This research extends the mechanism discussion of the relationship between environmental regulation and enterprise economic performance,and provides valuable insights on the formulation and the implementation of environmental regulation policies and programs.