Carbon emission trading scheme and university technology transfer: does innovation quantity or quality matter?

Carbon emission trading scheme (CETS) has been regarded as an important instrument by the Chinese government to address climate issues and achieve energy conservation and emission reduction. Currently, the impact of CETS on technological innovation has gained increased research interest. However, its further influence on university technology transfer, which is essential for the diffusion of technological innovation achievements, has been, until now, inadequately understood and analyzed. Building on the micro-data at the university level and employing a difference-in-differences model, this study explores the impact of CETS on university technology transfer and its underlying mechanism. Results show that CETS significantly facilitates university technology transfer. This outcome is still valid after considering the event study method, placebo test, instrumental variables method and a series of robustness tests. Then, we find that CETS can help promote university technology transfer by improving university innovation quality rather than innovation quantity. Further heterogeneous analyses demonstrate that a more pronounced effect occurs in the universities located in old industrial cities and cities with higher carbon emissions per capita, as well as in non-985 universities and universities with more technology transfer experience. In terms of individual pilot regions, the effect is more significant in four regions in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Hubei and Guangdong. As for the carbon market characteristics, carbon trading price has a significantly positive effect on university technology transfer.