IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/spr/advbcp/978-94-6239-640-1_9.html

The Impact of Environmental Protection Tax on High-Quality Enterprise Development: Evidence from China

In: Proceedings of the 2026 5th International Conference on Big Data Economy and Digital Management (BDEDM 2026)

Author

Listed:
  • Yanxiang Li

    (South China Agricultural University, School of Public Administration)

  • Jinyuan Liu

    (Hainan University, School of Marxism)

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of China’s Environmental Protection Tax (EPT), implemented in 2018 as a quasi-natural experiment replacing the pollution discharge fee, on high-quality enterprise development. Utilizing a difference-in-differences (DID) model with panel data from listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges (2015-2023), the research focuses on heavily polluting firms as the treatment group. The findings reveal that the EPT significantly promotes enterprise high-quality development, proxied by total factor productivity (TFP_LP), despite potential short-term cost increases. This positive effect operates primarily through a synergistic triple mechanism: enhanced green innovation, improved ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) performance, and the suppression of managerial short-termism. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the positive impact is more pronounced for large enterprises and state-owned enterprises (SOEs), while small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and non-SOEs face greater transformation challenges due to resource constraints and market pressures. The results support the Porter Hypothesis, demonstrating that environmental regulation can stimulate innovation and efficiency gains. The study concludes with policy recommendations for differentiated tax design, strengthened ESG incentives, optimized corporate governance, and coordinated policy support systems to foster enterprise transformation towards high-quality development.

Suggested Citation

  • Yanxiang Li & Jinyuan Liu, 2026. "The Impact of Environmental Protection Tax on High-Quality Enterprise Development: Evidence from China," Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, in: Hongbo Li & Daowen Qiu & Hui An & Yahua Xu & Liew Chee Yoong (ed.), Proceedings of the 2026 5th International Conference on Big Data Economy and Digital Management (BDEDM 2026), pages 91-111, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:advbcp:978-94-6239-640-1_9
    DOI: 10.2991/978-94-6239-640-1_9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a
    for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:spr:advbcp:978-94-6239-640-1_9. 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: 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.