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Tax incentives, environmental regulation and firms’ emission reduction strategies: Evidence from China

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  • Qi, Yu
  • Zhang, Jianshun
  • Chen, Jianwei

Abstract

Policy interaction is an important way to deal with increasingly complex environmental problems. This paper examines the investment-related tax cuts and the policy interaction with environmental regulation on firms' emission reduction strategies. Taking China's value-added tax (VAT) reform as a quasi-natural experiment and considering the interaction with the emission reduction target policy, our difference-in-differences estimation shows that: the average effect of the VAT reform reduces firms' sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission intensity by 16.6%, due to the adoption of emissions reduction strategies in the production processes; the interaction effect between the VAT reform and environmental regulation incentivizes firms to additionally reduce SO2 emission intensity, due to the adoption of both production processes and end-of-pipe reduction strategies. Our findings are more evident for firms with tight financial constraints. Overall, this paper reveals the micro-mechanisms of how the tax policies incentivize firms to choose emission reduction strategies and highlights the importance of the interaction effects between environmental and non-environmental policies, thus providing implications for the policy mix of environmental regulation and tax-cut incentives to promote pollution reduction and improve business performance.

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  • Qi, Yu & Zhang, Jianshun & Chen, Jianwei, 2023. "Tax incentives, environmental regulation and firms’ emission reduction strategies: Evidence from China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:117:y:2023:i:c:s0095069622001036
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2022.102750
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    VAT reform; Emission reduction target; Interaction effect; Firm emission reduction strategies; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling

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