环境规制与企业产品结构优化策略——来自多产品出口企业的经验证据

Environmental Regulation and Product Mix of Firm——Evidence from Multi-product Exporters in China

有关企业环境行为的研究多在单一产品企业假设的基础上展开,忽视了产品结构调整在企业应对环境规制过程中的重要作用。本文以清洁生产标准的实施作为准自然实验,基于2000—2016年中国进出口海关数据库中企业—产品数据,研究环境规制如何影响多产品出口企业的产品结构调整,试图明晰环境规制是否会促进企业产品结构清洁化。研究表明:清洁生产标准政策实施显著改善了企业出口产品结构。具体而言,清洁生产标准实施使得企业在产品扩展、淘汰和规模调整时表现出对规制产品和未规制产品的显著差异,即与未规制产品相比,规制产品被扩展的概率低0.15%,被淘汰的概率高1.72%,规模缩减程度高15.57%。进一步研究发现,并不是所有企业受规制影响的程度都相同,清洁生产标准对企业产品结构清洁化的作用方向和程度因企业所在地区的环境目标而异。机制分析表明,在应对规制的策略上,企业通过降低规制产品的质量以及推动产品差异化调整来优化产品结构。本文研究有助于打开企业“黑箱”,进一步识别企业应对环境规制的微观机制,为更好地从资源配置角度理解环境规制助推产业结构清洁化提供重要启示。

The existing researches on the environmental behavior of firms are mostly based on the assumption of single product firm, ignoring the significant role of product mix in the process of firm’ response to environmental regulation.Based on the firm-product data in the China Import and Export Customs database from 2000 to 2016, this study examines how environmental regulation affects the product mix adjustments of multi-product exporters by the implementation of cleaner production standards as a quasi-natural experiment, and tries to clarify whether environmental regulations promote cleaner product structure of firms.Empirical evidence shows that, overall, the implementation of cleaner production standards has significantly improved the pollution structure of firms’ export products.Specifically, the implementation of cleaner production standards makes the probability of firms expanding regulated products 0.15% lower than the probability of expanding unregulated products, and the probability of eliminating regulated products is 1.72% higher than the probability of unregulated products, reducing the scale of regulated products 15.57% more than unregulated products.Furthermore, in terms of the influence mechanisms, environmental regulation reduces the quality of export products and adjust product differentiation to allocate resources within the firm, thereby affecting the adjustment of the firm’s product portfolio.This paper helps to open the “black box” of enterprises, further identifies the micro mechanism of enterprises’ response to environmental regulation, and provides implication for a better understanding of environmental regulation promoting the clean industrial structure from the perspective of resource allocation.