低碳城市试点政策与企业高质量发展——基于经济效率与社会效益双维视角的检验

Low-Carbon City Pilot Policy and High Quality Development of Enterprises:From the Perspective of Economic Efficiency and Social Benefit

低碳城市试点是推动中国经济低碳转型的重要政策。以微观企业高质量发展为落脚点,利用2008—2019年沪深两市A股上市公司数据,采用多时点双重差分模型进行实证检验,本文发现:低碳城市试点政策能显著促进企业高质量发展,不仅能够提升企业全要素生产率,还能促进企业可持续发展表现,发挥统筹经济效率和社会效益的积极作用。机制检验表明,低碳城市试点政策发挥了“创新效应”,通过提高企业创新投入和创新效率推动企业高质量发展。企业高质量发展的经济效率与社会效益之间的内在联系在于,经济效率的提升能够促进企业社会效益的发挥,低碳城市试点政策实施后,全要素生产率越高的企业可持续发展表现越好;进一步检验发现,命令控制型政策是低碳试点城市促进企业高质量发展的主要工具,绿色金融发展水平较高的地区,低碳城市试点政策的作用更大。合理利用外部媒体的监督治理功能,提高内部管理层能力能放大低碳城市试点政策的积极效应。研究拓宽了低碳城市试点政策效应评估,有助于促进政府、金融机构、媒体和企业形成低碳转型合力,为我国实现碳中和与经济高质量发展提供检验证据和有益启示。

China’s economy has shifted from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development.High-quality development of enterprises is the micro basis of high-quality development of economy.The transformation of economic development mode,optimization of economic structure and transformation of growth power are inseparable from the subjective role of enterprises.In this context,as an important environmental policy,whether the low-carbon city pilot can achieve a win-win situation between economic efficiency and social benefits,so as to promote the high-quality development of enterprises,is the core issue of this paper.Taking the low-carbon city pilot as a quasi-natural experiment and using the data of Chinese listed companies from 2008 to 2019,this paper uses time-varying difference-in-difference method to examine the impact of the low-carbon city pilot policy on the high-quality development of enterprises from the perspectives of economic efficiency and social benefit.The results show that low-carbon city pilot policy can significantly promote high-quality development of enterprises,not only improve total factor productivity of enterprises,but also promote sustainable development performance of enterprises,and play a positive role in coordinating economic efficiency and social benefits.The mechanism test shows that the low-carbon city pilot policy brings into play the “innovation effect” and promotes the high-quality development of enterprises by improving their innovation input and innovation efficiency.The internal connection between economic efficiency and social benefits of enterprises’ high-quality development is that the improvement of economic efficiency can promote the social benefits of enterprises.After the implementation of low-carbon city pilot policy,enterprises with higher total factor productivity perform better in sustainable development.Further examination shows that command-and-control policy is the main tool to promote high-quality development of enterprises in low-carbon pilot cities,and the positive effects of low-carbon city pilot policy are greater in areas with higher level of green finance development.Rationally utilizing the supervision and governance function of media and improving the ability of management can amplify the positive effect of low-carbon city pilot policy.This paper broadens the evaluation of the effects of low-carbon city pilot policy,which will help the government,financial institutions,media and enterprises form a joint force for low-carbon transformation,and provide testing evidence and beneficial inspiration for China’s realization of carbon neutrality and high-quality development of economic.The possible marginal contributions of this paper are as follows:First,Take the high-quality development of micro enterprises as the foothold,this paper enriches the research on evaluation of the effects of low-carbon city pilot policy.Most existing literatures analyze the industrial structure upgrading effect or pollution control effect of low-carbon city pilot policy from the perspective of economy or society alone,and there are few literatures discuss the impact of pilot policies of low-carbon cities on the high-quality development of micro enterprises.This paper is helpful to form a comprehensive evaluation of low-carbon city pilot policy.Second,enrich the measure dimensions and influence factors of enterprises’ high quality development.Most existing literatures put total factor productivity as a research focus,this paper,the organic connection between economic efficiency and social benefits is demonstrated and tested,and the total factor productivity and sustainable development performance of enterprises are considered overall.It provides a new testing evidence for whether “Porter hypothesis” conforms to the status quo of China’s low-carbon economic transition.Third,this paper examines the further heterogeneity analyses from the perspective of policy types,regional green financial development,and provides policy tools identification and regional development guidance for the smooth implementation of low-carbon city pilot policy.At the same time,this paper also explores the factors promoting policy implementation from the perspective of media and management,which can help to improve the coordination between the government and the market,and provide targeted suggestions for promoting high-quality development of enterprises.