Research On The Impact Of Market-based Environmental Regulation On Enterprise Competitiveness

Environmental regulation affects economic development while protecting th e environment by influencing enterprises' production processes,resource allocation and innovation incentives.With the improvement of market resource allocation capabilities,the Chinese government is gradually reducing direct administrative interventions and control measures,and using market-based regulations to solve environmental problems instead.Market-based regulatory tools can stimulate enterprise technological innovation and thus have an impact on enterprise competitiveness.Combined with the transformation of regulatory tools in China's environmental regulation practice and the core viewpoint of Porter Hypothesis,this paper builds multi-dimensional and multi-level quantitative indicators to reflect enterprise competitiveness based on large sample data of Chinese enterprises at the product level,enterprise level,industry level and city level.We focus on the market-based environmental regulation of sulfur dioxide emissions trading policy,and use the standardized econometric models to test the im pact of market-based environmental regulation on enterprise productivity,enterprise export performance,enterprise export product quality,industrial upgrading,capturing the difference in the effects of market-based environmental regulation on enterprise competitiveness under different situations.The main research contents are as follows:Firstly,on the basis of reviewing the research progress of the impact of environmental regulation on enterprise competitiveness,it sorts out the practice of environmental policy in China,and defines the specific performance of market-based environmental regulation and enterprise competitiveness.The sulfur dioxide emission trading policy was determined as the research object,and the enterprise competitiveness was decomposed into four specific performances of enterprise productivity,enterprise export performance,enterprise export product quality and industrial upgrading.The mechanism of the influence of market-based environmental regulation on enterprise competitiveness is discussed from three aspects: influence channel,influence mechanism and influential differentiation effects.Secondly,based on the panel data of total factor productivity and related control variables at the Chinese enterprise level,the differen ce-in-difference model is used to identify the impact of market-based environmental regulation on the total factor productivity of enterprises.Through the clean-up and matching of Chinese industrial data,the LP method is used to calculate the total facto r productivity of Chinese enterprises,and the difference-in-difference model is used for empirical analysis.The study finds that the SO2 emissions trading policy has a significant effect on the total factor productivity of enterprises;the effect of the SO2 emissions trading policy has shown a decreasing trend,but it can significantly improve the productivity of enterprises within three years of implementation with long-lasting effect;the SO2 emissions trading policy shows significant heterogeneous effe cts on firms' productivity due to differences in firm ownership,industry,and productivity levels.Thirdly,based on Chinese industrial enterprise data and customs trade data,the difference-in-difference model is used to test the impact of market-based environmental regulation on corporate export performance.By combining Chinese industrial enterprise data and customs trade data,the export value of enterprises is taken as the proxy variable of export performance of enterprises,which is decomposed by the extensive margin,the intensive margin and the mixed margin of exports,to expand the connotation of export performance.The study finds that the SO2 emissions trading policy plays an important role in promoting corporate export performance.This promotion is achieved by following the extensive margin and the intensive margin of exports.There exist heterogeneous effects on the impact of the SO2 emissions trading policy on corporate export performance,but it isn't significant in the heterogenous effect on industry.The enterprise technological innovation channel is the main way to increase the export value of the enterprise suffered by the SO2 emissions trading policy.Fourthly,based on the panel data of Chinese enterprises-product quality of export products and related factors,this paper further examines the impact of market-based environmental regulation on the quality of export products.The product quality is indirectly inferred from the price and quantity of the firms' export products,and the difference-in-difference model is used for empirical analysis.The study finds that the SO2 emissions trading policy has greatly reduced the quality of export products,indicating that during the sample period,the policy can promote the China's extensive trade growth which focus more on quantity rather than quality.There is no lag effect on the negative impact of the SO 2 emissions trading policy on the quality of export products,but there is no long-term effect.The policy has different characteristics for the influence of enterprises with different ownerships and different industries.Fifthly,based on the panel data of industrial technical sophistication and related control variables at China's city level,the impact of market-based environmental regulation on urban industrial upgrading is identified.On the basis of the technical sophistication of exports,the regional manufacturing industrial technical sophistication index is constructed combined with the industrial structure,to reflect the level of urban industrial upgrading.The study finds that the SO2 emissions trading policy can significantly improve the technical sophistication of cities,and this industrial upgrading effect has a lag period of about three years.There is dynamicity,regional heterogeneity and technical level effectiveness in the impact of this policy on industrial upgrading.With the gradual improvement of the level of urban technical sophistication,the promotion effect of this policy on urban industrial upgrading has shown a "U"-shaped change trend.In summary,the impact of market-based environmental regulation on enterprise competitiveness and its radiation impact on industrial upgrading are heterogeneous.This study has gained some policy implications.First,ensure the effective operation of emissions trading market,and accelerate the establishment of a variety of emissions trading markets across the country.Second,rationally use the financial tools to provide institutional guarantees and economic incentives for the effective implementation of market-based environmental regulations,to ensure the unification of government regulation and market mechanisms.Third,accelerate the research and practice of multi market-based regulatory tools,and give full play to the convergence effect of various environmental regulation tools.