| The rapid development of China’s economy is accompanied by aggravation of environmental problems,frequent smog disasters in major cities,and continuous pollution of rivers,which have threatened public health and the sustainable development of social economy.The key to improving environmental quality lies in prevention and control at the source" of heavily polluting enterprises.Iron and steel enterprises are currently one of the main sources of air pollution in China,and are closely related to their development models of "high energy consumption","high pollution" and "high emissions".Facing the constraints of resource shortage and energy shortage,promoting the improvement of total factor productivity(TFP)of iron and steel enterprises is not only an inevitable choice for transforming the development mode of iron and steel enterprises and enhancing the international competitiveness of iron and steel enterprises,but also a key step in protecting the ecological environment and improving the effectiveness of environmental governance.On the balance between environment and development,the government and enterprises should have different roles.As the makers of environmental policies,the government has certain guiding functions for enterprises;if enterprises want to maintain long-term competitiveness,they will tend to improve their current technologies.The "Porter Hypothesis" theory points out that the environmental regulations implemented by the government can internalize the environmental externalities caused by the production of the enterprise to the production costs of the enterprise,and force the technological innovation of the enterprise,thereby promoting the improvement of the TFP of the enterprise.However,it usually takes a period of time for companies to achieve technological innovation,and ignoring this objective fact may result in the effect of environmental regulation being underestimated.At the same time,other studies have pointed out that under the influence of local government competition,environmental regulations have the characteristics of "incomplete enforcement" and "race to bottom ",which may make environmental regulations not conducive to curbe the reduction of pollution emissions by enterprises,and thus hindering the formation and release of the technological innovation effect of environmental regulations on enterprises.It can be seen that in order to scientifically and rationally investigate the impact of environmental regulations on the TFP of iron and steel enterprises and the degree of its impact,not only the dynamic relationship between the two needs to be considered,but also the factors of local government competition should be included..So,to what extent do the current environmental regulations affect the TFP of steel companies?What are the dynamic characteristics of this effect?Does local government competition have a regulatory effect in the dynamic relationship between environmental regulation and the TFP of iron and steel enterprises?What is the adjustment method?Are there differences between regions?These are the key issues to be addressed in this article.Based on the above issues,this article is based on the theory of total factor productivity,the theory of Porter hypothesis,and the theory of local government competition.It follows the logical idea of "theoretical research → current research→empirical research→ countermeasure research".The specific content is as follows:analysis.Based on the existing domestic and foreign literature and theoretical results,the concepts of environmental regulation,local government competition,and corporate TFP are defined,the internal relationship between the three is clarified,and put forward research hypotheses to be tested.(2)Measurement analysis.According to relevant theories and literature,the environmental regulation and enterprise TFP measurement methods are clarified and measured,the internal and external environmental conditions of the development of Chinese steel companies are investigated,and the changing characteristics and regional differences of environmental regulation and TFP of iron and steel enterprises are analyzed.(3)Empirical Research.Using empirical analysis of micro-data and provincial-level macro data of Chinese steel listed companies from 2010 to 2018,to explore the dynamic impact of environmental regulation on steel companies ’TFP,and further investigate the regulatory effect of local government competition on the dynamic relationship between environmental regulation and TFP of steel enterprises,test the hypothesis of this study.(4)Policy inspiration.Combining domestic and foreign research experience and empirical results of this research,it proposes countermeasures to promote the promotion of TFP in Chinese steel companies from the government and enterprise levels respectively.The main research conclusions of this article are as follows:(1)During the sample period,the regulatory pressure on Chinese steel companies generally fluctuating,and the level of environmental regulations in the national level has increased from 0.280 in 2010 to 0.319 in 2018.Among them,the level of environmental regulation in the central and western regions has maintained a steady rise,but there has been no significant positive change in the eastern region.(2)During the sample period,the national steel company’s TFP rose volatilely,from 5.252 in 2010 to 5.379 in 2018,but the problems of unstable growth and slow growth coexist,with an average annual growth of only 0.35%.In terms of different regions,the TFP of iron and steel enterprises in the three major regions has shown a volatile rise,and the average value of the index has a declining pattern of "east,middle and west" gradients,which are 5.518,5.303,and 4.829 respectively.(3)Environmental regulations have an important impact on the TFP of iron and steel enterprises,but the effect of different periods is significantly different,and there is obvious regional heterogeneity.Specifically,the current item of environmental regulation will significantly inhibit the promotion of steel companies’ TFP in the eastern and central regions,but this inhibition is not significant in the western region;The lag period of environmental regulation has a significant effect on the TFP of iron and steel enterprises in all three regions,but in the eastern region,environmental lags are significantly positive in the first period,and in the central and western regions,environmental lags are significantly positive in the second period.(4)Local government competition has played a negative adjustment role in the dynamic relationship between environmental regulation and TFP of iron and steel enterprises,and has significantly negatively adjusted the relationship between the current period of environmental regulation and the lag period of environmental regulation and the TFP of iron and steel enterprises.The above conclusions have been verified in the eastern and central regions;for the western region,local government competition has only significantly negatively adjusted the lag period of environmental regulation TFP relationship with steel companies. |
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