IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v251y2025ics016517652500165x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Carbon peaking pressure and corporate R&D investment

Author

Listed:
  • Sun, Dan
  • Li, Yiping

Abstract

The goal of “double carbon” presents both challenges and opportunities for China's manufacturing sector. This study examines the impact of regional carbon peaking pressure (CPP) on corporate R&D investment, using panel data from Chinese A-share listed manufacturing firms between 2015 and 2020. By employing a two-stage least squares approach, we find that higher CPP significantly boosts R&D investment, particularly in R&D-intensive firms, state-owned enterprises, and firms with lower tax payments. In contrast, firms with lower R&D investment ratios, private firms, and major tax contributors exhibit a weaker response to CPP. In addition, while CPP increases R&D investment, it also introduces trade-offs, such as reduced management expenses and temporary declines in productivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Sun, Dan & Li, Yiping, 2025. "Carbon peaking pressure and corporate R&D investment," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:251:y:2025:i:c:s016517652500165x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112328
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016517652500165X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112328?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Lanoie & Michel Patry & Richard Lajeunesse, 2008. "Environmental regulation and productivity: testing the porter hypothesis," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 121-128, October.
    2. Kirill Borusyak & Peter Hull & Xavier Jaravel, 2022. "Quasi-Experimental Shift-Share Research Designs," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(1), pages 181-213.
    3. Rubashkina, Yana & Galeotti, Marzio & Verdolini, Elena, 2015. "Environmental regulation and competitiveness: Empirical evidence on the Porter Hypothesis from European manufacturing sectors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 288-300.
    4. Timothy J. Bartik, 1991. "Who Benefits from State and Local Economic Development Policies?," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number wbsle.
    5. Wang, Zhongchao & Yu, Xiaoying & Zhang, Weimin, 2024. "Chinese-style carbon emission reduction: Micro mechanisms of state-owned enterprises," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).
    6. Michael Greenstone & John A. List & Chad Syverson, 2011. "The Effects of Environmental Regulation on the Competiveness of U.S. Manufacturing," Working Papers 11-03, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    7. Wayne B Gray & Ronald J Shadbegian, 1993. "Environmental Regulation And Manufacturing Productivity At The Plant Level," Working Papers 93-6, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    8. Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham & Isaac Sorkin & Henry Swift, 2020. "Bartik Instruments: What, When, Why, and How," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(8), pages 2586-2624, August.
    9. Chakraborty, Pavel & Chatterjee, Chirantan, 2017. "Does environmental regulation indirectly induce upstream innovation? New evidence from India," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(5), pages 939-955.
    10. Huang, Jingchang & Zhao, Jing & Cao, June, 2021. "Environmental regulation and corporate R&D investment—evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 154-174.
    11. Yuhuan Sun & Juntao Du & Shuhong Wang, 2020. "Environmental regulations, enterprise productivity, and green technological progress: large-scale data analysis in China," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 290(1), pages 369-384, July.
    12. Wanli Zhang & Bin Zhu & Yongling Li & Dan Yan, 2024. "Revisiting the Porter hypothesis: a multi-country meta-analysis of the relationship between environmental regulation and green innovation," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.
    13. Kneller, Richard & Manderson, Edward, 2012. "Environmental regulations and innovation activity in UK manufacturing industries," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 211-235.
    14. Michael E. Porter & Claas van der Linde, 1995. "Toward a New Conception of the Environment-Competitiveness Relationship," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 97-118, Fall.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rubashkina, Yana & Galeotti, Marzio & Verdolini, Elena, 2015. "Environmental regulation and competitiveness: Empirical evidence on the Porter Hypothesis from European manufacturing sectors," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 288-300.
    2. Huang, Jingchang & Zhao, Jing & Cao, June, 2021. "Environmental regulation and corporate R&D investment—evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 154-174.
    3. Benatti, Nicola & Groiss, Martin & Kelly, Petra & Lopez-Garcia, Paloma, 2024. "Environmental regulation and productivity growth in the euro area: Testing the porter hypothesis," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    4. Xie, Rong-hui & Yuan, Yi-jun & Huang, Jing-jing, 2017. "Different Types of Environmental Regulations and Heterogeneous Influence on “Green” Productivity: Evidence from China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 104-112.
    5. Cao, June & Li, Wenwen & Hasan, Iftekhar, 2023. "The impact of lowering carbon emissions on corporate labour investment: A quasi-natural experiment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    6. Wang, Yan & Shen, Neng, 2016. "Environmental regulation and environmental productivity: The case of China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 758-766.
    7. Huang, Youxing & Xu, Qi & Zhao, Yanping, 2021. "Short-run pain, long-run gain: Desulfurization investment and productivity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    8. Zhang, Yijun & Li, Xiaoping & Song, Yi & Jiang, Feitao, 2021. "Can green industrial policy improve total factor productivity? Firm-level evidence from China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 51-62.
    9. Zhang, Yaxin & Zeng, Shibo & Wu, Qiaosheng & Fu, Junyi & Li, Tongping, 2023. "A study on the impact of the carbon emissions trading policy on the mining industry based on Porter hypothesis," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(PB).
    10. Marin, Giovanni & Vona, Francesco, 2019. "Climate policies and skill-biased employment dynamics: Evidence from EU countries," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    11. Jiang, Jiatong & Pei, Jiansuo & Zhang, Meng, 2024. "Green credit and firms’ span of global production stages," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    12. Marin, Giovanni & Vona, Francesco, 2021. "The impact of energy prices on socioeconomic and environmental performance: Evidence from French manufacturing establishments, 1997–2015," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    13. Zhang, Yijun & Song, Yi, 2022. "Tax rebates, technological innovation and sustainable development: Evidence from Chinese micro-level data," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    14. Du, Minzhe & Liu, Yunxiao & Wang, Bing & Lee, Myunghun & Zhang, Ning, 2021. "The sources of regulated productivity in Chinese power plants: An estimation of the restricted cost function combined with DEA approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    15. Albrizio, Silvia & Kozluk, Tomasz & Zipperer, Vera, 2017. "Environmental policies and productivity growth: Evidence across industries and firms," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 209-226.
    16. Peng, Jiaying & Xie, Rui & Ma, Chunbo & Fu, Yang, 2021. "Market-based environmental regulation and total factor productivity: Evidence from Chinese enterprises," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 394-407.
    17. Xie, Yu & Wu, Desheng & Li, Xiaoyan & Tian, Suhua, 2023. "How does environmental regulation affect productivity? The role of corporate compliance strategies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    18. He, Yiqing & Ding, Xin & Yang, Chuchu, 2021. "Do environmental regulations and financial constraints stimulate corporate technological innovation? Evidence from China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    19. Martínez-Zarzoso, Inmaculada & Bengochea-Morancho, Aurelia & Morales-Lage, Rafael, 2019. "Does environmental policy stringency foster innovation and productivity in OECD countries?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    20. Lv, Chengchao & Shao, Changhua & Lee, Chien-Chiang, 2021. "Green technology innovation and financial development: Do environmental regulation and innovation output matter?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:251:y:2025:i:c:s016517652500165x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.