碳市场绿色创新的动力机制:产权界定还是市场交易?

The Driving Mechanism of Green Innovation in Carbon Emissions Trading Markets:Property Rights Definition or Market Transactions?

碳市场是利用市场机制推动绿色低碳发展的重大制度创新。理论上,初始产权界定与市场交易都会影响碳市场的资源配置效率,但二者对绿色创新的影响差异仍有待实证检验。文章基于中国各试点地区碳市场的建立这一准自然实验,运用交错DID方法研究了碳市场对企业绿色创新的影响及其作用机制。研究发现:碳市场对企业绿色创新有显著的激励效应。碳市场中不同初始产权界定方式对企业绿色创新的激励效果存在差异;碳市场无法通过市场交易推动生产要素从效率低的企业流向效率高的企业;碳市场中存在较高交易费用是造成上述事实的原因。碳市场中初始产权界定对企业绿色创新的影响大于碳市场交易对企业绿色创新的影响。碳市场促进了企业的实质性绿色创新,但过高的碳价会抑制碳市场对企业绿色创新的激励效应。文章的研究丰富了碳市场与企业绿色创新之间的理论和实证研究,为进一步完善中国碳市场的制度安排提供了参考。

The carbon emissions trading market(CETM)is a major institutional innovation that utilizes the market mechanism to promote green and low-carbon development.An in-depth study of the impact of the CETM on green innovation(GI)is of great significance in promoting China’s economic and social green transformation and realizing sustainable development.Theoretically,both initial property rights definition and market transactions affect the resource allocation efficiency of the CETM,but the differences in the impacts of the two on GI remains to be empirically tested.Based on the quasi-natural experiment of the establishment of the CETM in each pilot region in China,this paper takes A-share listed companies as the research object,and applies staggered DID to study the impact of the CETM on GI and its mechanism of action.The study finds that the CETM has a significant incentive effect on GI,and this effect still holds after a series of robustness tests.Mechanism testing shows that the CETM can incentivize GI by internalizing the positive externalities of innovation.There are differences in the incentive effect of different initial property rights definition methods in the CETM on GI;the CETM is unable to promote the flow of production factors from inefficient firms to efficient firms through market transactions;and the existence of high transaction costs in the CETM is the reason for the above facts.The impact of initial property rights definition on GI is greater than that of market transaction on GI.Further analysis reveals that excessively high carbon prices may inhibit the incentive effect of the CETM on GI,and the CETM promotes substantive GI.Heterogeneity analysis finds that the incentive effect of the CETM on GI is related to the characteristics of regions,industries,and firms.The marginal contributions of this paper are as follows:First,it finds that transaction costs are the reason for the differences in the incentive effect of different initial property rights definition methods on GI,and also the reason for the differences in the impacts of initial property rights definition and market transactions on GI,providing a realistic basis for the application of the Coase Theorem in the CETM.Second,the impacts of carbon price,relative trading size,and liquidity on GI are discussed empirically,enriching the research on the impact of the market mechanism of the CETM on GI.Third,firms in the CETM are precisely identified,and their exit from the CETM is considered to ensure the accuracy of pilot firms and the reliability of empirical conclusions.