Government Environmental Protection Subsidies And Enterprise Green Innovation ——Empirical Evidence From Heavy Polluting Industries

At present,China’s economy has shifted from a high growth stage to a high quality growth stage,and green is the background color of high-quality development and the key to high-quality economic development in China.From building a beautiful China to establishing and improving an economic system for green,and from low-carbon and circular development to carbon peaking and carbon neutrality,these all show that the determination of China to promote high-quality development,green transformation in economic development and achieve greater success in green transformation.As the top priority of pollution control work,the heavy polluting industry is an important starting point for the country to promote the transformation of the economy,and green innovation is regarded as the key force to promote the transformation of the development mode,the adjustment of the economic structure and the solution of pollution control.However,most enterprises are faced with a severe shortage of research and development funds.Government environmental protection subsidies are special funds issued to enterprises,which just provide a source of funds for enterprises’ green innovation.However,enterprises may use environmental protection subsidies for other purposes,or invest them in end-of-line management,rather than investing in green innovations that take a long time in research and development and have high risks but are beneficial to the company in the long run.In this way,it is of great significance to deeply explore the relationship between government environmental protection subsidies and the green innovation of heavily polluting enterprises.This thesis collects data on A-share listed companies in China’s heavily polluting industries from 2008 to 2019.First,based on Porter hypothesis,externality theory,signal transmission theory and stakeholder theory,it analyzes the relationship between government environmental protection subsidies and green innovation.Using OLS multiple regression method,this thesis empirically tests the impact and mechanism of government environmental protection subsidies on green innovation of enterprises,and the economic consequences caused by environmental protection subsidies to promote green innovation.The results show that: first,government environmental protection subsidies can promote the green innovation of heavily polluting enterprises;second,government environmental protection subsidies can alleviate the financing constraints of heavily polluting enterprises,and government environmental protection subsidies can promote green innovation of enterprises by easing the financing constraints of heavily polluting enterprises;third,under different types of environmental regulations,among which government environmental protection subsidies have a greater role in promoting green innovation of enterprises with a lower level of cost-based environmental regulation,while government environmental protection subsidies have a higher role in promoting the green innovation of enterprises with a higher level of public participation in environmental regulation;fourth,under different levels of intellectual property protection,government environmental protection subsidies have a greater role in promoting green innovation in companies with higher levels of intellectual property protection;fifth,under different levels of equity incentives,enterprises with higher equity incentives have a greater role in promoting green innovation;sixth,government environmental protection subsidies can promote green innovation in heavily polluting enterprises,thereby improving corporate environmental performance.This thesis aims to better promote the green innovation of heavily polluting enterprises and promote the realization of green transformation of economic development.Combined with the research conclusions,the following policy recommendations are made: first,enterprises should take the initiative to take responsibility for green innovation and change their concepts from passive pollution control to active green innovation;second,enterprises should effectively use executive incentives to alleviate agency problems and increase their enthusiasm for green innovation;third,the government should increase environmental protection subsidy policies for heavily polluting enterprises,and establish a reasonable selection of subsidy objects process and fund using supervision mechanism;fourth,the government should optimize the environmental regulation system,and gradually improve the cost-based and public participation-based environmental regulation means;fifth,the government should strengthen intellectual property protection,so that there are laws to follow and laws it must be followed,and the law must be strictly enforced.The main contributions of this thesis are as follows: first,taking A-share listed companies in heavy polluting industries as the research object,it deeply discusses the impact of government environmental protection subsidies on corporate green innovation,enriching the research on the factors affecting corporate green innovation;second,this thesis reveals the mechanism of government environmental protection subsidies to promote green innovation of enterprises,and studies its mechanism from the perspective of financing constraints,which enriches the research on government environmental protection subsidies;third,this thesis also examines the impact of cost-based environmental regulation,public participation-based environmental regulation,intellectual property protection and executive equity incentives on the relationship between government environmental protection subsidies and corporate green innovation.Research on the difference in the relationship between subsidies and green innovation of enterprises,so as to improve the green innovation ability of enterprises in a more targeted manner.