用能权交易制度对绿色技术创新的影响效应与传导机制

Research on The Effect and Transmission Mechanism of Energy-consuming Right Trading System on Green Technological Innovation

绿色技术创新是中国达成碳达峰、碳中和目标的根本途径,厘清用能权交易制度对绿色技术创新的影响效应和作用渠道是贯彻落实新发展理念的关键。以用能权交易制度作为准自然实验,基于2014-2019年中国A股工业企业面板数据,运用倾向匹配得分法和双重差分模型探究用能权交易制度对中国工业企业绿色技术创新的影响机制。研究表明:用能权交易制度显著推动了中国工业企业绿色技术创新,且在一系列稳健性检验后结论依然成立。此外,用能权交易制度诱发企业绿色技术创新的作用效果依企业所属行业和所有权性质不同而不同。究其原因,用能权交易制度主要通过影响企业研发资金、研发人员、税收优惠和政府补贴等促进企业绿色技术创新。

Green technology innovation has the dual characteristics of improving production efficiency, saving energy and reducing emissions. Besides this, it is the fundamental way for China to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutral goals. As China accelerates the high-quality development, it is beneficial to explore how to drive green technology innovation for the achievement of the "dual carbon goal" and promotion of sustainable economic development. In this context, as an environmental policy tool to reduce energy consumption through market mechanism, the energy-consuming right trading system is the core tool to induce green technology innovation. It is of great theoretical and practical value for China to identify and clarify the impact effect and internal mechanism of the energy-consuming right trading system on green technology innovation, so as to promote green development and reduce the pressure of energy saving, emission reduction and economic transformation.To begin with, this study sorts out the policy background and related concept of energy-consuming right trading system, and clarifies the operation principle of energy-consuming right trading system. On this basis, this study puts forward the viewpoint that the energy-consuming right trading system has a positive impact on enterprise green technology innovation, and analyses the transmission mechanism of the energy-consuming right trading system affecting green technology innovation from two aspects: R&D investment and government support.Then according to the policy characteristics of the energy-consuming right trading system, this paper regards it as a quasi-natural experiment, and then it uses the data of China’s A-share industrial enterprises from 2014 to 2019 to explore the impact of the energy-consuming right trading system on the green technology innovation of Chinese industrial enterprises and its action path. The results show that the energy-consuming right trading system significantly promotes the green technology innovation of Chinese industrial enterprises, and it is still established after a series of robustness tests. In addition, the effect of the energy-consuming right trading system on the green technology innovation of enterprises is heterogeneous according to the industry and the nature of ownership. Compared with high energy consuming enterprises, the effect of energy-consuming right trading system on promoting green technology innovation of non-high energy consuming enterprises is more significant. Furthermore, the positive impact of energy-consuming right trading system on non-state-owned enterprises is more obvious than that of the state-owned enterprises. By examining its transmission path, the study confirms that the energy-consuming right trading system promotes green technology innovation mainly through influencing R&D funds, R&D personnel, tax incentives and government subsidies.On the basis of the empirical results and the policy objectives of the energy-consuming right trading system, this paper finally puts forward relevant suggestions for China to comprehensively promote the construction of the energy-consuming right trading market and promote the green technology innovation of enterprises from three aspects. Foremost it is important to keep improving the design of the energy-consuming right trading mechanism. On the premise of fully evaluating the existing industrial structure and regional energy consumption, it is necessary to explore the cross-regional paid transaction of total energy-consuming indicators so as to realize the flow and concentration of energy elements, and accelerate the construction of the national energy use trading market. Then it is crucial to make targeted system innovation according to the characteristics of energy consumption and the situations of energy consumption transactions of different enterprises. The third is to establish a full-process supervision to ensure the standardized operation of the market. It is suggested to establish a legal framework at the national level and improve relevant rules and regulations at the local level so that there would be a legal basis for the transaction supervision and the control of potential credit risk and operational risk. Recommendations to stimulate future research about energy-consuming right trading system are offered, for instance the spatial spillover effect of energy-consuming right on green technology innovation of enterprises and the transmission effects of financial development in the process of enterprise technological innovation induced by the energy-consuming right trading system are worthy of further analysis.