揭开出口贸易影响企业排污的“面纱”——清洁生产与终端治理

Untangling the Mechanism of How Trade Affect Firm Pollution:Cleaner Production or Post-Pollution Abatement

出口贸易对企业排污的影响机制一直是学术界的未解之谜。本文利用2001—2007年中国工业企业和企业污染排放数据库,考察了企业出口行为对污染排放物排放的影响。实证结果显示,企业出口能够降低二氧化硫、烟尘、工业废气、工业废水等单位产出的污染排放量,这说明出口贸易对企业污染排放产生了抑制作用。进一步的机制分析显示,企业出口行为对二氧化硫、烟尘、工业废气的抑制作用主要是通过使用清洁型能源实现的,即“清洁生产”渠道;而对工业废水的抑制作用主要是通过“终端治理”来实现的。此外,出口的影响具有一定的异质性,对于污染行业、劳动密集型行业、规模较小企业的作用更为明显。同时,在更换了出口的度量指标、加入其他控制变量后,实证结果依然稳健。本文的实证结果对于新形势下我国环境政策的制定、企业污染治理具有重要的政策含义。

The existing literature emphasizes that productivity is the main channel through which export affects firm-level emissions.This paper uses the sewage data of China’s microenterprises from 2000 to 2007 to effectively identify the micro-mechanism through which export affects firm-level emissions.The empirical results indicate that after controlling for firm-level characteristics,i.e.,size,tfp,etc,export tends to reduce emission-intensity of various pollutants.This reduction is achieved mainly through the use of clean energy and improved energy efficiency.In addition,the impact of exports exhibits heterogeneity,i.e.,export reduces emission-intensity more among firms that have higher productivity and in labor intensity sectors.Our results are robust to a serious of specifications.The empirical results of this paper generate important policy implications for policy makers in China:effectively designing environmental regulations to balance pollution reduction and economic growth.