| As the world’s largest economy,China is also the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world.China has started to introduce carbon emission trading scheme(ETS)to slow its greenhouse gas emissions,with trials in seven regions including Shenzhen,Beijing and Guangzhou.Even though ETS has been implemented several years,there are not many studies on the policy effect of carbon emission trading.“Want both gold mountain and silver mountain,also want green water and green mountain” means that China should maintain economic development and improve the environment in the "new reform".The famous “Porter Hypothesis” shows that strict and appropriate environmental regulations can promote enterprises to achieve a win-win situation between environment and economy through innovation,so can carbon emission trading achieve the porter effect in the context of China? Thus,this thesis wants to answer whether the carbon ETS can achieve a "win-win" effect under Chinese background?Firstly,this study answered the impact of ETS on firm innovation.Based on the sample of listed companies located in the pilot ETS regions from 2010 to 2015,this paper empirically tests whether ETS can force enterprises to innovate independently by using the DID model.The study found that after the implementation of the ETS,the independent innovation behavior of ETS-participating enterprises was significantly improved.The liquidity of the carbon trading market would affect the relationship between the ETS and the independent innovation of enterprises.The higher the carbon price,the larger the daily trading scale and the higher the annual trading activity of the carbon trading market,which will drive the independent innovation of ETS-participating enterprises.Secondly,this study answers the effect of ETS on corporate environmental peiformance.This paper conducts research based on China’s micro level data from 2010 to 2016.This paper first collects the list of the ETS-participating firms in each pilot region manually,and identifies the listed companies as the treatment group.Then,the paper uses the PSM method to match the appropriate control group(non-ETS-participating firms)from the other regions according to the individual characteristic variables such as enterprise technology level,production capacity,scale,years of establishment and industries.Lastly,DID model is used to examine the effect of ETS on enterprise carbon emission and emission reduction behavior.This study found that the implementation of ETS can indeed significantly reduce corporate carbon emissions.Moreover,enterprises mainly reduce carbon emissions in the overall production process by increasing emission reduction equipment from the long-term perspective,rather than reduce emissions through short-sighted actions by reducing production.Finally,this study answers the impact of ETS on enterprise financial performance.With the quasi-natural experiment scenario of the ETS in China,this paper provides empirical evidence of the impact of carbon ETS on firm value.Based on the announcement of carbon ETS,we find positive market reaction for this event,especially for firms with low carbonintensity.However,with the DID methods,we find ETS has no effect on firm’s long-term value.Further,we explain it is because of the loose implement of Chinese ETS and the cut overcapacity policies that lead to the oversupply of allowances and low price of the allowance.On the whole,although the ETS has settled the environmental problem and promoted the innovative behaviors of enterprises,it is not conducive to the long-term value of enterprises.It shows that China’s ETS fails to achieve a win-win situation between the environment and the economy,and only realizes the "weak porter hypothesis",that is,ETS can promote enterprise innovation,but the innovation dividend is not enough to completely offset the compliance cost of enterprises,thus damaging the economic dividend.The conclusions of this paper provide some references for government regulatory departments,carbon market,enterprises,investors and the public. |
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