新《环保法》提升了企业绿色创新质量吗?——基于新《环保法》实施的准自然实验

Dose the new Environmental Protection Law promote the quality of green innovation of enterprises:Based on a quasi-natural experiment of the new Environmental Protection Law

以新《环保法》实施作为准自然实验,基于2012—2017年A股上市工业企业绿色专利被引用数量,探究新《环保法》的实施对企业绿色创新质量的影响。研究发现:新《环保法》的实施能够显著促进重污染行业企业绿色创新质量的提升,在进行一系列稳健性检验后,结论仍然成立。异质性分析表明:新《环保法》的实施能够显著促进东部地区企业、非国有企业以及成长期企业绿色创新质量的提升,而对中西部地区企业、国有企业以及成熟期企业绿色创新质量的影响不显著。机制分析发现:随着市场竞争程度的降低,新《环保法》的实施对企业绿色创新质量产生显著的负向影响。为提升微观企业绿色创新质量,提出适当提升市场竞争水平、实施差异化政策、营造更加公平的竞争环境、鼓励创新等政策建议。

Summary:With the increasingly serious environmental pollution,China has formulated and introduced a series of environmental regulation policies to reduce environmental pollution and promote green development.In 2015,the new Environmental Protection Law,called the“strictest in history”,came into effect.Compared with the Old Environmental Protection Law,the new Environmental Protection Law further clarified the legal responsibilities of different subjects,increased the penalties for environmental violations,and introduced information disclosure and public participation mechanisms.The CPC 20th report pointed out that we should actively and steadily promote carbon peak and carbon neutrality and promote green development.Promoting green and low-carbon economic and social development is a key link in achieving high-quality development.Because enterprises are the micro subject of economic society,the high-quality development of economic society cannot be separated from the high-quality development of enterprises.The implementation of the new Environmental Protection Law has undoubtedly greatly solved the problem of environmental pollution in China,but whether it can improve the quality of green innovation of enterprises needs to be further studied.It is of great theoretical and practical significance to explore the influence of the new Environmental Protection Law on the green innovation quality of enterprises.Based on the data of the number of green patents cited by Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed industrial enterprises from 2012 to 2017,this paper took the implementation of the new Environmental Protection Law as a quasi-natural experiment,to explore the impact of the new Environmental Protection Law on the green innovation quality of industrial enterprises.What the study found is as the follows.First,compared with non-heavily polluting industrial enterprises,the new Environmental Protection Law can significantly promote the improvement of green innovation quality of heavily polluting industrial enterprises;the conclusion is held after performing robustness tests such as parallel trend test,placebo test,PSM-DID and replacement of explained variables.Secondly,heterogeneity analysis has showed that the new Environmental Protection Law can significantly promote the improvement of green innovation quality in industrial enterprises in eastern regions,non-state-owned industrial enterprises and growth-up stage of industrial enterprises,but has no significant impact on green innovation quality industrial enterprises in central and western regions,state-owned industrial enterprises and mature industrial enterprises.Thirdly,mechanism analysis has showed that with the decrease of market competition,the new Environmental Protection Law has a significant negative impact on the quality of green innovation of industrial enterprises.The research conclusion can provide some enlightenment and suggestions for improving environmental regulation policies and promoting the quality improvement of green innovation of enterprises.Based on the above research conclusions,this paper provides the following policy enlightenment.First,moderately increase the degree of market competition,and pay attention to the quality of green innovation of enterprises.Promote cross-regional and cross-industry flow of green innovation elements to avoid the situation of industry monopoly;give certain environmental subsidies or tax incentives to enterprises conducting high-quality green innovation activities.Secondly,pay attention to regional differences and make reasonable and preferential policies.According to the current economic and environmental situation of each region,reasonable policies should be formulated to guide each region to explore differentiated development paths of green technology innovation.Thirdly,create a more level playing field for market competition.We will increase access to non-state-owned enterprises,especially small and medium-sized enterprises The financial support and financial subsidies of the industry provide certain channels and convenience in the introduction of talents and technology.Finally,stimulate market innovation vitality.Increase policy support for growing enterprises;and set up special funds to encourage competent mature enterprises to conduct high-quality green innovation activities.Different from the existing studies,most studies used the number of green patents of enterprises to measure the green innovation level of enterprises,but this paper used the number of green patents cited to measure the green innovation quality of enterprises,to study the impact of the new Environmental Protection Law on the green innovation quality of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed industrial enterprises.The possible marginal contribution of this paper falls into the following three points.First,it measures the quality of green innovation quality of industrial enterprises based on the number of authorized green patents,and then studies the influence of the new Environmental Protection Law on the quality of green innovation of micro enterprises,which enriches the measurement index of green innovation quality of enterprises and the influence of environmental regulation on micro enterprises.Secondly,the industrial enterprises were selected as the sample enterprises,and the dual difference model can reflect the policy effect of the new Environmental Protection Law more truly and effectively.Thirdly,the degree of product market competition was selected as mechanism variable,which enriches the mechanism research on the influence of environmental regulation on the green innovation of micro enterprises.