Fiscal Decentralization, Taxation Efforts and Corporate Green Technology Innovation in China Based on Moderating and Heterogeneity Effects

Corporate green technology innovation is an effective way to achieve regional sustainable development goals (SDGs). Based on fiscal decentralization as a green function that empowers provincial governments with fiscal powers that are highly relevant to regional sustainable economic decision-making, this paper focused on the impacts of fiscal decentralization on corporate green technology innovation, as well as the moderating roles of taxation efforts. Taking China’s listed corporations from the period of 2005 to 2019 as the research sample, we constructed green technology innovation indicators at the corporate level. The empirical results were as follows: firstly, fiscal decentralization significantly promoted corporate green technology innovation on the whole; secondly, the synergy effects of fiscal decentralization and taxation efforts were strongly positive, implying a substantial promotion of corporate green technology innovation; thirdly, heterogeneity tests found that the synergistic effects of fiscal decentralization and taxation efforts were more significant in promoting corporate green technology innovation in eastern China, non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) and manufacturing corporations. The above results were proven to be equally valid after a series of robustness tests. We suggest that provincial governments should be granted more fiscal autonomy, and that taxation efforts should be optimized to promote corporate green technology innovation.