空气污染会倒逼企业进行绿色创新吗?

Does air pollution stimulate corporate green innovation?

环境污染及其引致的环境规制成本是否有助于促进企业进行绿色转型?这是社会各界共同关注的重要问题.利用2014–2018年A股工业企业作为研究样本,实证检验了空气污染是否以及如何影响企业的绿色创新行为.研究发现,企业所在城市的空气污染越严重,其未来的绿色创新水平越高.平均而言,城市空气污染水平每增加1个百分点,公司的绿色创新水平将提升0.75个百分点,相关影响同时具有统计显著性和经济显著性.进一步的机制检验发现,空气污染主要通过政府环境治理和公众环保监督倒逼企业提高其绿色创新水平,空气污染对企业绿色创新的促进作用在媒体关注度高和融资约束低的企业中表现得更强.此外,绿色创新显著提高了企业的长期市场价值.总之,文章丰富了空气污染微观经济后果和企业绿色创新影响因素等领域的研究文献,能够为国家制定污染防治的政策措施提供理论支持和经验证据.

Do environment pollution and resultant costs of the environmental regulation help to promote corporate green innovation?This is an important issue of common concern from all sections of society.Using A-share industrial listed firms from 2014–2018,this study examines whether and how air pollution affects corporate green innovation.Our results show that air pollution significantly increases the level of corporate green innovation in near future.On average,1%increase in air pollution in a focal city will lead to 0.75%increase in green innovation in focal firms,displaying statistic and economic significance.Further mechanism analyses reveal that local government regulation and public supervision are partial intermediary factors of the associtation between air pollution and corporate green innovation.Moreover,the positive association is found to be more pronounced in firms having higher media coverage and lower financing constraints.In addition,we find that green innovation will significantly improve corporate market value.Overall,this study can enrich the literature on the microeconomic consequences of air pollution and the determinants of corporate green innovation,and also provide theoretical support and empirical evidence for the government making policies for pollution prevention.