An Study Of The Impact Of Low Carbon Pilot Policies On Total Factor Productivity Of Enterprises

The departed coarse development pattern of high energy consumption and high pollution has brought the domestic environmental carrying capacity close to the upper limit.Coupled with the international calls for environmental protection and the increasingly urgent needs of the domestic public for ecological products,based on China’s national conditions,China takes vigorous action to go in quest of a sustainable development path,try to achieve a win-win synergy between environmental performance and economic benefits.The objective fact that global warming is on the verge of getting out of control and being the largest carbon polluter on a global scale requires China to set an example in energy conservation and carbon reduction.China has started to vigorously explore the path of low-carbon development,successively launching the Top-1000 Enterprises Energy-Saving Program and the Ten Thousand Enterprises Energy-Saving and Carbon Reduction Initiative,and implementing a number of policies such as Low-Carbon City Pilot Policy(LCCPP)and Carbon Emission Trading Pilot.Considering that nearly 80%of man-made greenhouse gases are produced by cities,the Notice on Piloting LowCarbon Provinces,Regions and Cities officially issued in 2010.Under the overall guidance of the National Development and Reform Commission,including Yunnan and Hangzhou,five provinces and eight cities took the lead in the first batch of piloting work and gradually expanding the scope of piloting,so as to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of regional energy-saving and GHG emission reduction,promote the implementation of carbon neutral and carbon peaking strategies.Numerous studies by experts and scholars have proven that human society cannot evolve without continuous input of resources,and thus economic growth is accompanied by an increase in carbon emissions over time.Can low carbon city construction,which aims to decouple economic growth from carbon emissions,smash the trajectory reliance of enterprise development,and can enterprises achieve a mutually beneficial circumstances in fields of environmental performance and economic benefits?Focusing on this question,this paper carries out a quasi-natural experiment based on LCCPP.After introducing the research background,the text first compares the domestic and international literature,proposes hypotheses to be tested on account of Porter’s hypothesis,dynamic competition theory and RBV.Subsequently,a difference-indifference model is applied to evaluate the policy effect of LCCPP on the Total Factor Productivity(TFP)of firms,using Chinese A-share public companies from 2008 to 2020 as the target of study.The findings make known that:1.The prosecution of LCCPP fulfil a positive role in improving TFP of enterprises,and the epilogue is robust.2.The heterogeneity analysis of enterprise ownership attributes and industry cleanliness confirms that low-carbon city pilot policies are more effective in enhancing productiveness of non-state enterprises.Under the circumstances that the full sample results make clear that the LCCPP exerts a positive effect in the TFP of enterprises,the productiveness of enterprises in highcarbon industries will be reduced by the policy implementation.3.The LCCPP acts upon the TFP enhancement of enterprises through two paths:technological innovation and accelerated enterprise dynamic competition.In view of the findings,this dissertation put forward policy suggestion for the full operation of the LCCPP and the sustainability of enterprises’ low-carbon advancement at both government and enterprise levels.As far as the government is concerned,the government should integrate the enterprise proprietorship and the industry,make targeted policies,and fully stimulate the enthusiasm of all types of subjects;At the same time,we should simplify the delisting mechanism of enterprises,comply with the law of survival of the fittest in the market,and normalize delisting.Enterprises should strengthen technological innovation and fundamentally reverse the mode of economic growth.To summarize,this paper makes the investigation of the relevance between LCCPP and TFP from the perspective of enterprises more abundant,and complements the validation of Porter’s hypothesis at the enterprise level in China.