IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/tcpoxx/v21y2021i3p318-336.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Influence of a pilot carbon trading policy on enterprises’ low-carbon innovation in China

Author

Listed:
  • Shao-Zhou Qi
  • Chao-Bo Zhou
  • Kai Li
  • Si-Yan Tang

Abstract

China’s pilot carbon trading policy is expected to be both efficient and flexible in reducing carbon emissions through incentivising low-carbon innovation. This paper analyses the effects of this pilot policy on low-carbon innovation using a difference-in-difference model, based on a sample of selected enterprises and carrying out a series of robustness tests to corroborate the results. The analysis shows that the pilot carbon trading policy is predicted to have a significantly positive effect on the low-carbon innovation of enterprises that fall under its scope, notably by alleviating obstacles to the financing of low-carbon innovation. Furthermore, a heterogeneity analysis of enterprises’ characteristics and carbon allowance allocation methods in different pilots indicates that the effect of the pilot carbon trading policy on enterprises’ low-carbon innovation will be reflected mainly in enterprises in China’s eastern provinces, and in state-owned enterprises. Compared with the grandfathering and historical intensity allocation methods, the findings of this study suggest that the extent of low-carbon innovation is significantly greater when the benchmarking method is used. The results of this paper offer some key insights into improving the policy design of a nationwide carbon trading market in China, as well as a reference point for other countries and regions, especially developing countries, in establishing a carbon trading market.Key policy insights China’s pilot carbon trading policy can promote low-carbon innovation.Easing the financing constraints of enterprises can promote low-carbon innovation.Compared with the grandfathering and historical intensity allocation methods, using the benchmarking method significantly improves the enterprises’ low-carbon innovation.

Suggested Citation

  • Shao-Zhou Qi & Chao-Bo Zhou & Kai Li & Si-Yan Tang, 2021. "Influence of a pilot carbon trading policy on enterprises’ low-carbon innovation in China," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 318-336, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:tcpoxx:v:21:y:2021:i:3:p:318-336
    DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2020.1864268
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14693062.2020.1864268
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/14693062.2020.1864268?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.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Liu, Ming & Shan, Yanfei & Li, Yemei, 2022. "Study on the effect of carbon trading regulation on green innovation and heterogeneity analysis from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    2. Gao, Yihong & Gao, Jiayan, 2023. "Low-carbon transformation and corporate cash holdings," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    3. Liang Shen & Fei Lin & T. C. E. Cheng, 2022. "Low-Carbon Transition Models of High Carbon Supply Chains under the Mixed Carbon Cap-and-Trade and Carbon Tax Policy in the Carbon Neutrality Era," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-21, September.
    4. Zhiliang Xu & Changxin Xu & Yun Li, 2023. "Green Credit Policy, Environmental Investment, and Green Innovation: Quasi-Natural Experimental Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-17, May.
    5. Chaobo Zhou & Yuankun Li & Zhengxin Sun, 2022. "Has the Carbon Trading Pilot Market Improved Enterprises’ Export Green-Sophistication in China?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-18, August.
    6. Yuguo Jiang & Enock Mintah Ampaw & Hongyan Wu & Lan Zhao, 2023. "The Effects of System Pressure on Low-Carbon Innovation in Firms: A Case Study from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-20, July.
    7. Zhengge Song & Jingjing Tang & Haijian Zeng & Fangying Pang, 2024. "How Urban-Level Credit Expansion Affects the Quality of Green Innovation: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-22, February.
    8. Wang, M. & Zhou, P., 2022. "A two-step auction-refund allocation rule of CO2 emission permits," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    9. Zhengjun Hu & Shanshan Li, 2023. "Innovation-Driven Policy and Low-Carbon Technology Innovation: Research Driven by the Impetus of National Innovative City Pilot Policy in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-18, May.
    10. Chao Tu & Yingfang Shi, 2023. "Market-Incentive Environmental Regulation and the Quality of Corporate Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-17, March.
    11. 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).
    12. Zhang, Xinhua & Zhang, Qianqian & Dai, Zhifeng & Zhang, Xiaotong, 2023. "The impact of carbon markets on the financial performance of power producers: Evidence based on China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).
    13. Xuehui Yang & Jiaping Zhang & Lehua Bi & Yiming Jiang, 2023. "Does China’s Carbon Trading Pilot Policy Reduce Carbon Emissions? Empirical Analysis from 285 Cities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-24, March.
    14. Enci Wang & Jianyun Nie & Hong Zhan, 2022. "The Impact of Carbon Emissions Trading on the Profitability and Debt Burden of Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-20, October.
    15. Jiawei Li & Jianghong Zeng & Zhengke Ye & Xiangrong Huang, 2021. "Are Clean Technologies More Effective Than End-of-Pipe Technologies? Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-17, April.
    16. Zhou, Chaobo & Qi, Shaozhou, 2022. "Has the pilot carbon trading policy improved China's green total factor energy efficiency?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    17. Shenhai Huang & Chao Du & Xian Jin & Daini Zhang & Shiyan Wen & Yu’an Wang & Zhenyu Cheng & Zhijie Jia, 2022. "The Boundary of Porter Hypothesis: The Energy and Economic Impact of China’s Carbon Neutrality Target in 2060," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-18, December.
    18. Li, Lei & Ma, Shaojun & Zheng, Yilin & Ma, Xiaoyu & Duan, Kaifeng, 2022. "Do regional integration policies matter? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment on heterogeneous green innovation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    19. Chen, Wen, 2023. "Bank connections, corporate social responsibility and low-carbon innovation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    20. Guangyao Yu & Qinqin Zheng & Xueying Lin & Kaiqi Yuan, 2023. "Sustainability-Oriented Low-Carbon Innovation in SOEs: A Case Study of Shanghai Metro," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-23, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:taf:tcpoxx:v:21:y:2021:i:3:p:318-336. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/tcpo20 .

    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.