环境规制能提高中国企业出口产品质量吗?--基于重点城市环境限期达标的准自然实验

Can Environmental Regulation Improve the Quality of Chinese Enterprises’Exports?-A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the Deadline of Air Pollution Prevention and Control Policy in Key Cities

中国经济发展新阶段的双重目标是实现经济高质量发展和“双碳”目标。在双循环新发展格局中,国内重点城市的大气污染防治达标与外贸质效的关联性值得深入探讨。论文以2003年原国家环保总局关于大气污染防治重点城市限期达标政策为准自然实验场,使用中国海关企业数据库和工业企业数据库的匹配数据,采用双重差分法(DID)实证检验113个重点城市环境规制对所在企业出口产品质量的影响。研究发现:(1)环境规制会显著促进企业出口产品质量的升级,且通过了一系列稳健性检验;(2)环境规制对非国有制企业和东部企业的出口产品质量的促进作用更强,对国有企业和中西部地区企业影响不明显,对来料加工贸易和一般贸易产生促进作用,但是对进料加工贸易影响不显著,对污染行业产品质量提升作用明显,对清洁行业影响不显著;(3)环境规制通过生产成本、产品创新、工艺创新等中介变量影响出口产品质量,且工艺创新的中介效应大于产品创新。

The dual goals of China’s economic development in the new stage are to achieve High Quality Development and“the Double Targets”of peaking carbon emissions and carbon neutral.In the new dual-cycle development pattern,the relationship between air pollution prevention compliance in Chinese key cities and the quality and efficiency of trade is a significant issue for further discussion.By using the Deadline of Air Pollution Prevention and Control Policy in Key Cities implemented by the National Environmental Protection Agency in 2003,this paper conducts a quasi-natural experiment.Matching the data from the Chinese Customs Database and Annual Survey of Industrial Firms(ASIF),it adopts difference-in-difference(DID)estimation to empirically test the impacts of 113 key cities environmental regulations on the quality of export products.The study finds that:(1)Environmental regulations will significantly promote the improvement of the Quality of Export Products of enterprises,which has successfully passed a series of robustness tests.(2)Non-state-owned enterprises and the enterprises in eastern region have a stronger effect in promoting the Quality of Export Products,while little effects on the enterprises in the central and western regions.Environmental regulation has a greater effect on the enterprises which adopting processing trade than general trade.It also has more significant effects on improving product quality in polluting industries than cleaning industries.(3)Production cost,product innovation and process innovation are the mediating variables of environmental regulation affecting the Quality of Export Products,and the mediating effect of process innovation was significantly greater than that of product innovation.