IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v16y2023i23p7795-d1288454.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Energy-Saving Effect of Tax Rebates: The Impact of Tax Refunds on Corporate Total Factor Energy Productivity

Author

Listed:
  • Qiongzhi Liu

    (School of Economics and Management, Wuhan University, Luojiashan Hill, Wuhan 430072, China)

  • Yifeng Xia

    (School of Economics and Management, Wuhan University, Luojiashan Hill, Wuhan 430072, China)

Abstract

This paper investigates whether and how tax and fee support policies at the firm level in China influence the total factor energy productivity of enterprises. Using panel data from Chinese public trading companies for the period 2004–2020, this study employs a panel model for estimation. The findings suggest that tax rebates contribute to the improvement of the total factor energy productivity of enterprises. Specifically, a 1% increase in tax refunds leads to a growth of approximately 0.008% in total factor energy productivity. Robustness tests and endogeneity checks confirm the validity of the results. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that tax rebates have a significant impact on state-owned enterprises, small- and medium-sized enterprises, and non-technology firms in terms of enhancing their total factor energy productivity. Mechanism analysis indicates that tax rebates facilitate firms in alleviating financing constraints and enhancing their innovation capabilities, thereby improving energy efficiency. The research findings of this paper provide empirical support for optimizing policy supply, improving energy usage efficiency, and promoting the development of a globally sustainable economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Qiongzhi Liu & Yifeng Xia, 2023. "The Energy-Saving Effect of Tax Rebates: The Impact of Tax Refunds on Corporate Total Factor Energy Productivity," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-19, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:23:p:7795-:d:1288454
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/23/7795/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/23/7795/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Li, Ming-Jia & Tao, Wen-Quan, 2017. "Review of methodologies and polices for evaluation of energy efficiency in high energy-consuming industry," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 203-215.
    2. Stern, David I., 2012. "Modeling international trends in energy efficiency," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 2200-2208.
    3. Clemens Fuest & Andreas Peichl & Sebastian Siegloch, 2018. "Do Higher Corporate Taxes Reduce Wages? Micro Evidence from Germany," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(2), pages 393-418, February.
    4. Heider, Florian & Ljungqvist, Alexander, 2015. "As certain as debt and taxes: Estimating the tax sensitivity of leverage from state tax changes," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(3), pages 684-712.
    5. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Raghutla, Chandrashekar & Chittedi, Krishna Reddy & Jiao, Zhilun & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2020. "The effect of renewable energy consumption on economic growth: Evidence from the renewable energy country attractive index," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    6. Lucas, Marilyn T. & Noordewier, Thomas G., 2016. "Environmental management practices and firm financial performance: The moderating effect of industry pollution-related factors," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 24-34.
    7. Lim, Sung-Hoon, 2005. "Foreign investment impact and incentive: a strategic approach to the relationship between the objectives of foreign investment policy and their promotion," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 61-76, February.
    8. Michael Gelman & Shachar Kariv & Matthew D. Shapiro & Dan Silverman, 2022. "Rational Illiquidity and Consumption: Theory and Evidence from Income Tax Withholding and Refunds," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(9), pages 2959-2991, September.
    9. Risch, Anna, 2020. "Are environmental fiscal incentives effective in inducing energy-saving renovations? An econometric evaluation of the French energy tax credit," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    10. Yongzheng Liu & Jie Mao, 2019. "How Do Tax Incentives Affect Investment and Productivity? Firm-Level Evidence from China," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 261-291, August.
    11. Zhou, Qianling & Li, Tao & Gong, Liutang, 2022. "The effect of tax incentives on energy intensity: Evidence from China's VAT reform," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    12. Sorrentino, Marco & Bruno, Marco & Trifirò, Alena & Rizzo, Gianfranco, 2019. "An innovative energy efficiency metric for data analytics and diagnostics in telecommunication applications," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C), pages 1539-1548.
    13. Stefanie Stantcheva, 2021. "Understanding Tax Policy: How do People Reason?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(4), pages 2309-2369.
    14. Olley, G Steven & Pakes, Ariel, 1996. "The Dynamics of Productivity in the Telecommunications Equipment Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(6), pages 1263-1297, November.
    15. Fikru, Mahelet G. & Azure, Jessica W.A., 2023. "Renewable energy technologies and carbon capture retrofits are strategic complements," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    16. Bhattacharya, Mita & Paramati, Sudharshan Reddy & Ozturk, Ilhan & Bhattacharya, Sankar, 2016. "The effect of renewable energy consumption on economic growth: Evidence from top 38 countries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 733-741.
    17. Daniel A. Ackerberg & Kevin Caves & Garth Frazer, 2015. "Identification Properties of Recent Production Function Estimators," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83, pages 2411-2451, November.
    18. Sun, Chuanwang & Zhan, Yanhong & Du, Gang, 2020. "Can value-added tax incentives of new energy industry increase firm's profitability? Evidence from financial data of China's listed companies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    19. James Levinsohn & Amil Petrin, 2003. "Estimating Production Functions Using Inputs to Control for Unobservables," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(2), pages 317-341.
    20. Mukherjee, Abhiroop & Singh, Manpreet & Žaldokas, Alminas, 2017. "Do corporate taxes hinder innovation?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(1), pages 195-221.
    21. Wang, Hai & Ye, Shuai & Chen, Hui & Yin, Junya, 2023. "The impact of carbon emission trading policy on overcapacity of companies: Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Xiekui & Gong, Dayong & Huang, Yihan & Li, Yiting, 2024. "The Government's fiscal and taxation policy effect on enterprise productivity: Policy choice and optimal allocation," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PB), pages 28-41.

    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. Nguyen, Hang T. T., 2024. "Corporate taxation and total factor productivity: Evidence on a non-linear relationship," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 284, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    2. Wei Cui & Mengying Wei & Weisi Xie & Jing Xing, 2021. "Corporate Tax Cuts for Small Firms: What Do Firms Do?," CESifo Working Paper Series 9389, CESifo.
    3. Hongsheng Fang & Xufei Zhang & Lin Guo, 2023. "Productivity effects of corporate income tax: Evidence from China," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(6), pages 1815-1842, June.
    4. Liu, Xiaohan & Liu, Jianmin & Wu, Haitao & Hao, Yu, 2022. "Do tax reductions stimulate firm productivity? A quasi-natural experiment from China," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 46(4).
    5. Liu, Lihua & Cao, Lele & Cao, Yuqiang & Lu, Meiting & Shan, Yaowen, 2024. "VAT credit refunds and firm productivity: Evidence from China's VAT reform," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    6. Yu, Jinliang & Qi, Yu, 2022. "BT-to-VAT reform and firm productivity: Evidence from a quasi-experiment in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    7. Philipp Meinen & Ana Cristina Soares, 2022. "Markups and Financial Shocks," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 132(647), pages 2471-2499.
    8. Wang, Manyu & Huang, Ying & An, Zidong & Wei, Chu, 2023. "Reforming the world's largest heating system: Quasi-experimental evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    9. Yihao Chen & Siying Ding & Yongzheng Liu & Guangliang Ye, 2024. "Competition policy and firm productivity: Quasi‐experimental evidence from China," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(6), pages 2236-2263, June.
    10. Xuchao Li & Jing Zhao & Ruomeng Yang, 2024. "Service liberalization and productivity in high‐tech firms: Evidence from China," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(4), pages 1607-1644, September.
    11. Dong, Zhanyu & Ma, Hongqi & Shen, Guangjun, 2021. "Estimating production functions using energy to control for unobserved utilization," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    12. Guangjun Shen & Jingxian Zou, 2023. "Total Factor Productivity in China's Manufacturing Sector in the Aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 31(2), pages 1-25, March.
    13. Jing Cao & Jie Mao, 2022. "Firm performance and economic development: Evidence from a unique dataset of China," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 447-464, July.
    14. Liu, Qing & Qiu, Larry D. & Wei, Xing & Zhan, Chaoqun, 2024. "The (dis)connection between R&D and productivity in China: Policy implications of R&D tax credits," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 297-320.
    15. Guerini, Mattia & Nesta, Lionel & Ragot, Xavier & Schiavo, Stefano, 2024. "Zombification of the economy? Assessing the effectiveness of French government support during COVID-19 lockdown," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 218(C), pages 263-280.
    16. Ensar Yılmaz & Zeynep Kaplan, 2022. "Heterogeneity of market power: firm-level evidence," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 1207-1228, May.
    17. Andrés César & Guillermo Falcone, 2020. "Heterogeneous Effects of Chinese Import Competition on Chilean Manufacturing Plants," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Spring 20), pages 1-60, December.
    18. Yuan, Li & Rao, Siqi & Yang, Shenggang & Dai, Pengyi, 2023. "Does equity market openness increase productivity? the dual effects of Shanghai-Hong Kong stock Connect program in China," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    19. Ioannis Bournakis & Mike Tsionas, 2024. "A Non‐parametric Estimation of Productivity with Idiosyncratic and Aggregate Shocks: The Role of Research and Development (R&D) and Corporate Tax," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 86(3), pages 641-671, June.
    20. Guo, Shu & Zhang, ZhongXiang, 2023. "Green credit policy and total factor productivity: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).

    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:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:23:p:7795-:d:1288454. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.