Mandatory cleaner production audit and enterprise carbon emission intensity: An examination under whole-chain governance

This study clarifies the theoretical mechanisms through which the Mandatory Cleaner Production Audit (MCPA) affects enterprises' carbon emission intensity. Then, it matches the list of key enterprises designated for MCPA in the five batches released by the State Environmental Protection Administration with the National Tax Survey Database from 2008 to 2016. By exploiting the introduction of MCPA as a quasi-natural experiment, this study applies a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) model to identify the causal net effect of MCPA on enterprises' carbon emission intensity. The results indicate that MCPA significantly reduces carbon emission intensity. This finding remains robust across a series of tests, including parallel trend assessments and controls for other potential policy interferences. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the effects vary significantly depending on many factors such as enterprise's financial constraints and the level of public environmental awareness in its region. Through a full-chain governance framework encompassing “source prevention - process control - end governance,” we further identify two underlying mechanisms: input substitution and innovation compensation effects. Additionally, extended analysis shows that the policy not only delivers substantial environmental benefits but also enhances an enterprise's output value and total factor productivity, demonstrating a synergistic achievement of both environmental protection and economic growth.