经济增长目标压力与企业污染:效应及渠道

Economic Growth Target Pressure and Corporate Pollution:Effects and Channels

企业是市场经济活动的微观主体,地方政府有动机和能力干预辖区内企业行为,因此,剖析地方政府经济增长目标压力对企业排污行为的微观影响具有重要意义。构建考察地方政府经济增长目标压力对企业排污行为影响的系统性逻辑框架,利用2000—2013年中国工业企业数据与中国制造业企业污染排放监测数据,在识别总体影响效应的基础上,基于企业特征、行业特征、地区特征和时间特征进行异质性探究,并从规模渠道、技术渠道和结构渠道检验其微观影响作用方式。结果表明:(1)经济增长目标压力倾向于强化企业污染行为;(2)经济增长目标压力对企业污染行为的影响效应具有异质性,对于非国有企业、污染密集型企业、所在地区市场化程度高和环保压力小的企业以及处于“科学发展观”提出前和经济下行期的企业影响相对更大;(3)扩大企业规模、阻碍技术进步和扭曲能源结构是经济增长目标压力作用于企业污染行为的主要影响渠道。据此提出,不断完善目标管理体系,引导地方政府良性竞争,因地制宜地制定经济增长目标,是激励地方政府积极探究破解经济增长与环境保护困境的有效方式。

China’s system demonstrates a robust capacity to establish and attain national objectives,which plays a pivotal role in propelling the country’s remarkable economic growth.However,in pursuing these economic goals,local governments are incentivized to prioritize investment projects with significant short-term economic returns,potentially neglecting environmental considerations.While this strategy may facilitate rapid economic expansion,leveraging environmental regulations as bargaining chips in economic competition risks deteriorating environmental governance standards.Consequently,the relentless pursuit of economic growth targets could yield adverse outcomes such as environmental degradation,undermining the long-term sustainability of regional economies.As pivotal actors in the market economy,enterprises are profoundly influenced by governmental economic policies.Thus,analyzing the nuanced impact of local government pressure to achieve economic growth targets on corporate pollution is imperative.This paper aims to construct asystematic logical framework for examining how local government pressure to achieve economic growth targets influences corporate pollutant discharge behavior.This paper is based on the combined data set of Chinese industrial enterprise data and Chinese manufacturing enterprise pollution emission monitoring data from 2000 to 2013.It not only assesses the overarching impact but also delves into heterogeneity across various corporate,industry,regional,and temporal dimensions.Furthermore,it elucidates the channels through which economic growth target pressure affects pollution behavior,encompassing scale expansion,technological stagnation,and energy structure distortion.Key findings indicate that economic growth target pressure tends to exacerbate corporate pollution,with varying degrees of impact across different types of enterprises and contextual factors.Specifically,the impact on non-state-owned enterprises,pollution-intensive enterprises,enterprises with a high degree of marketization and low environmental protection pressure in the region,and enterprises before the“Scientific Outlook on Development”and the economic downturn is relatively greater.Moreover,expanding enterprise scale,impeding technological advancement,and distorting energy usage emerge as primary channels through which economic growth target pressure influences corporate pollution behavior.This paper contributes to existing literature in three significant ways:Firstly,it constructs a systematic research framework centered on theoretical mechanisms,impact effects,and mechanism identification,shedding light on how local government economic objectives influence industrial pollution emissions.Secondly,it elucidates the heterogeneous impact of economic growth target pressure across multiple dimensions,enriching the nuanced understanding of its effects and enhancing policy implications.Thirdly,it examines the transmission mechanisms through which economic growth target pressure affects pollution emissions,laying a theoretical foundation for designing more effective corporate pollution control policies.Ultimately,this research offers fresh insights into China’[KG-*2]s pollution challenges and provides policy recommendations for advancing environmental protection efforts and fostering high-quality economic development.