IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v27y2025i1d10.1007_s10668-023-03902-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does the market-oriented environmental regulation promote firms’ technological innovation? Evidence from A-share listed companies in China

Author

Listed:
  • Wei Shao

    (Institute of Zhejiang Eight-Eight Strategy
    Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics)

  • Ke Yang

    (Henan Institute of Technology)

  • Ziqi Chen

    (Yunnan University)

Abstract

Launched in 2013, China’s carbon emission trading system (ETS) pilot program is often known as a successful example of developing countries using market mechanisms to accomplish environmental targets. However, few scholars have evaluated the economic incentives from the point of view of enterprise innovation behavior completely. Based on the financial records and patent statistics of China’s A-share listed companies, this paper uses China’s ETS pilot as a quasi-natural experiment to test. The results show that ETS has a significant incentive effect on enterprises’ R&D behavior, and the elastic coefficient between them is about 0.0333. Besides, the “relaxation of financing constraint” and “exerting cost pressure” are important transmission mechanisms for ETS to exert the incentive effect. Further analysis shows that ETS also has a significant effect on the R&D strategy and preference of enterprises, which significantly improves the quality of R&D and the enthusiasm of enterprises to carry out “green innovation.” In addition, we also find that the policy effect of ETS varies with different ownership and industries. Unlike the opponents of ETS, this paper believes that ETS can be used as a fundamental policy tool for developing countries to allocate environmental resources and control economic transition.

Suggested Citation

  • Wei Shao & Ke Yang & Ziqi Chen, 2025. "Does the market-oriented environmental regulation promote firms’ technological innovation? Evidence from A-share listed companies in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 1145-1174, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:27:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s10668-023-03902-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-023-03902-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-023-03902-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10668-023-03902-w?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 search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Luo, Yuanda & Xiong, Guobao & Mardani, Abbas, 2022. "Environmental information disclosure and corporate innovation: The “Inverted U-shaped” regulating effect of media attention," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 453-463.
    2. Daron Acemoglu & Philippe Aghion & Leonardo Bursztyn & David Hemous, 2012. "The Environment and Directed Technical Change," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 131-166, February.
    3. Jacobson, Louis S & LaLonde, Robert J & Sullivan, Daniel G, 1993. "Earnings Losses of Displaced Workers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(4), pages 685-709, September.
    4. Joseph E. Aldy & Alan J. Krupnick & Richard G. Newell & Ian W. H. Parry & William A. Pizer, 2010. "Designing Climate Mitigation Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(4), pages 903-934, December.
    5. Li, Xinze & Du, Kerui & Ouyang, Xiaoling & Liu, Lili, 2022. "Does more stringent environmental regulation induce firms' innovation? Evidence from the 11th Five-year plan in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    6. Polzin, Friedemann & Migendt, Michael & Täube, Florian A. & von Flotow, Paschen, 2015. "Public policy influence on renewable energy investments—A panel data study across OECD countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 98-111.
    7. 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).
    8. R. H. Coase, 2013. "The Problem of Social Cost," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(4), pages 837-877.
    9. Po Kou & Ying Han & Xiaoyuan Qi & Yuanxian Li, 2022. "Does China's policy of carbon emission trading deliver sulfur dioxide reduction co-benefits?," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(5), pages 6224-6245, May.
    10. Raphael Calel & Antoine Dechezleprêtre, 2016. "Environmental Policy and Directed Technological Change: Evidence from the European Carbon Market," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 98(1), pages 173-191, March.
    11. Armon Rezai & Frederick Ploeg, 2017. "Second-Best Renewable Subsidies to De-carbonize the Economy: Commitment and the Green Paradox," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 66(3), pages 409-434, March.
    12. Bird, Lori & Chapman, Caroline & Logan, Jeff & Sumner, Jenny & Short, Walter, 2011. "Evaluating renewable portfolio standards and carbon cap scenarios in the U.S. electric sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 2573-2585, May.
    13. Junming Zhu & Yichun Fan & Xinghua Deng & Lan Xue, 2019. "Low-carbon innovation induced by emissions trading in China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-8, December.
    14. Charles J. Hadlock & Joshua R. Pierce, 2010. "New Evidence on Measuring Financial Constraints: Moving Beyond the KZ Index," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(5), pages 1909-1940.
    15. Kong, Dongmin & Yang, Xiandong & Xu, Jian, 2020. "Energy price and cost induced innovation: Evidence from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    16. Malik, Arun S, 1992. "Enforcement Costs and the Choice of Policy Instruments for Controlling Pollution," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 30(4), pages 714-721, October.
    17. 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.
    18. James J. Heckman & Hidehiko Ichimura & Petra Todd, 1998. "Matching As An Econometric Evaluation Estimator," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 65(2), pages 261-294.
    19. Rogge, Karoline S. & Schneider, Malte & Hoffmann, Volker H., 2011. "The innovation impact of the EU Emission Trading System -- Findings of company case studies in the German power sector," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 513-523, January.
    20. Steven N. Kaplan & Luigi Zingales, 1997. "Do Investment-Cash Flow Sensitivities Provide Useful Measures of Financing Constraints?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 169-215.
    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. Hu, Hui & Qi, Shaozhou & Chen, Yuanzhi, 2023. "Using green technology for a better tomorrow: How enterprises and government utilize the carbon trading system and incentive policies," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    2. Zhao, Tianzhen & Ke, Haiqian & Zhang, Ning, 2025. "Comparing the innovation impacts on firms: Pilot vs. National Carbon Emission Trading Schemes in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 377(PB).
    3. Yao, Shiyue & Yu, Xueying & Yan, Sen & Wen, Shiyan, 2021. "Heterogeneous emission trading schemes and green innovation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    4. Li, Changsheng & Qi, Yaping & Liu, Shaohui & Wang, Xu, 2022. "Do carbon ETS pilots improve cities' green total factor productivity? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    5. Guo, Shu & Zhang, ZhongXiang, 2023. "Green credit policy and total factor productivity: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    6. Xu, Le & Yang, Lili & Li, Ding & Shao, Shuai, 2023. "Asymmetric effects of heterogeneous environmental standards on green technology innovation: Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    7. Zhao, Ziyi & Zhao, Yuhuan & Lv, Xin & Li, Xiaoping & Zheng, Lu & Fan, Shunan & Zuo, Sumin, 2024. "Environmental regulation and green innovation: Does state ownership matter?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    8. Johan Lilliestam & Anthony Patt & Germán Bersalli, 2021. "The effect of carbon pricing on technological change for full energy decarbonization: A review of empirical ex‐post evidence," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(1), January.
    9. Wu, Jie & Fan, Ying & Timilsina, Govinda & Xia, Yan, 2022. "Exploiting Complementarity of Carbon Pricing Instruments for Low-Carbon Development in the People’s Republic of China," ADBI Working Papers 1329, Asian Development Bank Institute.
    10. Maogang Tang & Silu Cheng & Wenqing Guo & Weibiao Ma & Fengxia Hu, 2023. "Relationship between carbon emission trading schemes and companies’ total factor productivity: evidence from listed companies in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(10), pages 11735-11767, October.
    11. Wu, Qingyang & Wang, Yanying, 2022. "How does carbon emission price stimulate enterprises' total factor productivity? Insights from China's emission trading scheme pilots," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    12. Du, Mengfan & Zhang, Yue-Jun, 2023. "The impact of producer services agglomeration on green economic development: Evidence from 278 Chinese cities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    13. Antoci, Angelo & Borghesi, Simone & Sodini, Mauro, 2012. "ETS and Technological Innovation: A Random Matching Model," Climate Change and Sustainable Development 139508, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    14. Buchholz Wolfgang & Heindl Peter, 2015. "Ökonomische Herausforderungen des Klimawandels," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 16(4), pages 324-350, December.
    15. Aatola, Piia, 2013. "Putting a Price on Carbon – Econometric Essays on the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and its Impacts," Research Reports P62, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    16. Chang, Yanhao & Benson, Karen & Faff, Robert, 2017. "Are excess cash holdings more valuable to firms in times of crisis? Financial constraints and governance matters," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 157-173.
    17. Xu, Jia & Zeng, Shu & Qi, Shaozhou & Cui, Jingbo, 2023. "Do institutional investors facilitate corporate environmental innovation?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    18. Jonathan Colmer & Ralf Martin & Mirabelle Muûls & Ulrich J. Wagner, 2020. "Does pricing carbon mitigate climate change? Firm-level evidence from the European Union emissions trading scheme," CEP Discussion Papers dp1728, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    19. Jeroen den Bergh & Ivan Savin, 2021. "Impact of Carbon Pricing on Low-Carbon Innovation and Deep Decarbonisation: Controversies and Path Forward," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 80(4), pages 705-715, December.
    20. Tommaso Oliviero & Sandro Rondinella & Alberto Zazzaro, 2024. "Are green firms more financially constrained? The sensitivity of investment to cash flow," CSEF Working Papers 700, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.

    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:spr:endesu:v:27:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s10668-023-03902-w. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.