进口竞争会促使中国企业更加环保吗——以SO_(2)的产出和排放为例

Will Import Competition Make Chinese Firms More Environmentally Friendly——Taking the Output and Emissions of SO_(2) as An Example

贸易与环境的关系一直是政府、企业和学界共同关注的重要议题。本文使用中国工业企业数据与污染企业环境调查数据,重点探讨了由进口贸易引致的竞争效应对中国企业SO_(2)产出和排放行为的影响。在以进口渗透率作为进口竞争代理指标的基础上,本文研究发现:进口竞争能够显著降低企业SO_(2)产出(排放)强度,且这一效应对于相对清洁行业内企业、高市场竞争度行业内企业以及民营企业的影响作用更加强烈。进口竞争主要通过生产技术升级机制降低企业SO_(2)产出(排放)强度,而产出规模调整机制的作用效果并不明显。进一步研究发现,进口竞争会提升行业内高污染企业退出市场的概率,导致行业内的企业SO_(2)产出(排放)强度离散度趋于收紧,从而对行业内绿色资源错配带来改善。

The relationship between trade and environment has been an important issue for government, firms and academia.Based on the data of the Annual Survey of Industrial Firms and the Environmental Survey of Polluting Firms, this paper discussed the effects of import competition on Chinese firms’ SO_(2)output and emission behavior.Using the import penetration as a proxy for import competition, it finds that import competition can significantly reduce the SO_(2)output(emission) intensity, and this effect is stronger for firms in cleaner industries, firms in high market competition industries and private firms.Import competition reduces SO_(2)output(emission) intensity through production technology upgrading mechanism, while the effect of output scale adjustment mechanism is not obvious.Further studies show that import competition will promote the exiting of high-polluting firms from the market, leading to a tightening of dispersion of SO_(2)output(emission) intensity, thus improving green resource mismatch.