Tax rebates, technological innovation and sustainable development: Evidence from Chinese micro-level data

Promoting coordinated economic and environmental development is an important problem faced by all countries. Based on an unbalanced panel dataset of Chinese mining firms from 2008 to 2011, this article investigates the impact of tax rebates for energy conservation and environmental protection on enterprise economic and environmental performance, and explores the mechanism involved. The results show that: (1) tax rebates improve the economic performance of firms while improving their environmental performance. In general, a 1% increase in tax rebates increases firm output by 0.5010% and reduce energy intensity by 0.0061%. The above conclusions are still robust after accounting for endogeneity. (2) Tax rebates have a stronger impact on the economic and environmental performances of private firms, firms in the central region of China and firms with high production capacity. (3) Tax rebates contribute to the economic and environmental performance of firms by improving their technological innovation and production efficiency. Further analysis shows that tax rebates have an incentive effect rather than an anti-driving effect on technological innovation. This study provides a theoretical basis for the use of tax rebate policies to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, and enriches the theoretical research on taxation.