| 19th CPC National Congress pointed out that China’s economy has moved from a stage of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development.This inevitably requires us to accelerate the pace of transition from extensive economic growth to intensive,adhere to the development concept of innovation,coordination,green,openness,and sharing,and embark on a practical,green,intensive,and efficient sustainable development path.The "13th Five-Year Plan" clearly proposes a higher-quality,more efficient and more sustainable development direction.High-quality development has become an important issue of widespread concern in the society in the new era.With the rapid economic growth of our country,the problems of environmental pollution and ecological imbalance in my country have become increasingly prominent.Among them,the problem of air pollution is particularly prominent,and it has become an important hidden danger that threatens people’s lives and economic development.In the face of increasingly severe air pollution problems,the central government has continuously strengthened air pollution regulations,which has triggered many discussions on the economic effects of environmental regulations.In this context,the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the General Administration of Quality Supervision,Inspection and Quarantine jointly issued the "Ambient Air Quality Standard(2012)"(new standard policy)on February 29,2012,aimed at improving the air quality in cities.According to the Bulletin of the State of the Environment in China in 2017,19 out of 74 cities including Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei,Yangtze River Delta,and Pearl River Delta have reached strict air quality testing standards,an increase of 21.6% compared to 2013.Chinese environmental governance has seen first effectiveness.However,while improving urban air quality,environmental regulatory policies have also led to an increase in theIVregulatory costs of regulated companies.The "Porter Hypothesis" believes that regulatory pressures can prompt enterprises to carry out technological innovation,improve their productivity,and then promote enterprises to shift to high-quality development.In this regard,this article empirically studies the impact of the new standard policy on the high-quality development of enterprises and its mechanism.Using the data of 670 Chinese heavily polluting companies from 2009 to 2014,this paper uses DID(Difference-In-Difference)to empirically study the impact of the implementation of the "Ambient Air Quality Standards(2012)" policy on the promotion of the high-quality development of Chinese companies and the mechanism of action.The study found that the implementation of this policy has significantly promoted the high-quality development of enterprises(measured by indicators such as total factor productivity).Parallel trend hypothesis,replacement metrics,dynamic trend test,PSM-DID,placebo test and other multi-angle tests have all confirmed the robustness of the research conclusions in this article.At the same time,the policy effect of the new standard policy varies significantly among different types of business owners.In addition,the policy effect of the new standard policy will be heterogeneous due to the strength of environmental regulations.Research has found that the new standard policy can significantly promote the high-quality development of non-state-owned enterprises.In cities with strong regulations,the new standard policies can significantly promote the high-quality development of enterprises.Through the research on the channels of the new standard policy for the high-quality development of enterprises,it is found that the policy is mainly to promote the high-quality development of enterprises through technological innovation and optimization of corporate governance structure.In summary,this article confirms that the new standard policy can promote the high-quality development of enterprises,but also verifies the "strong" Porter hypothesis.Based on the research results of this article,the following policy recommendations are put forward:First,a reasonable design and effective implementation of environmental regulations can achieve a "win-win" of economic performance and environmental performance.The implementation of the new standards and policies in the 74 pilot cities in the first section and cities with large environmental regulations have significantly promoted the high-quality development of pollution-intensive enterprises.Therefore,in order to ensure the implementation of environmental policies,the central government should clarify the environmental governance responsibilities of various local governments while promulgating corresponding environmental regulatory policies,strengthen the central government’s environmental supervision of local governments,and truly implement environmental regulatory policies.Secondly,it is necessary to design and implement environmental regulations and policies in accordance with local conditions.Different enterprise ownership systems may react differently when faced with regulations.Therefore,differentiated policies should be implemented for enterprises with different ownership types.Third,establish a long-term mechanism for innovation to drive the high-quality development of the enterprise.Although the implementation of the new standard policy has "troubles" in the short term,in the long run,it promotes the high-quality development of enterprises driven by technological innovation and organizational(institutional)innovation.Therefore,in formulating and implementing environmental regulatory policies and industrial policies,technological innovation should be placed in a prominent position,the system and mechanism of innovation-driven high-quality development of enterprises should be further improved,and enterprises should be encouraged and funded to carry out(green)technological innovations,so as to achieve high-quality innovation-driven enterprises development strategy.At the same time,improve the corporate governance structure,incorporate environmental performance appraisal into the corporate performance appraisal system,and establish a long-term incentive and restraint mechanism for the enterprise.Appropriately implement equity decentralization and equity checks and balance strategies,avoid short-sighted behaviors caused by equity concentration,implement high-energy remuneration incentives for managers,reduce corporate agency costs,maximize the interests of shareholders and stakeholders,and promote corporate sustainability and High-quality development. |
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