1.School of Management/ Hubei Province Research Center for Consolidating the Sense of Community for the Chinese Nation,South-Central Minzu University,Wuhan 430073,China
2.Center for Industrial and Business Organization,Dongbei University of Finance and Economics,Dalian 116025,China
For a long time, China’s economic growth has primarily relied on extensive consumption of production factors. With increasing constraints on resources and diminishing environmental capacity, the traditional resource-dependent economic development model has become unsustainable. Promoting corporate energy conservation and emission reduction represents a practical strategy for China’s transition toward high-quality economic development. Environmental pollution is fundamentally a problem of resource production and utilization, and resource tax policies that constrain pollution at its source may be an important choice to guide enterprises to form endogenous energy conservation and emission reduction drivers. However, few studies have paid attention to the actual impact of resource tax, as a green fiscal policy, on corporate environmental performance.
Based on the “ad valorem” resource tax reform for crude oil and natural gas implemented in 2010, and using Chinese industrial enterprise data and micro-level enterprise emission data from 2005 to 2014, this study employs a multi-period difference-in-difference model to investigate this relationship. The findings reveal that the resource tax reform significantly reduced the pollution emissions level of enterprises. This conclusion remains robust after a series of robustness tests such as excluding the influence of relevant policies and the interference of heterogeneous treatment effects. Heterogeneity analysis found that resource tax reform has more significant pollution reduction effects on non-state-owned enterprises and enterprises in central and western regions. By examining the differences in pollution reduction between upstream and downstream enterprises from the perspective of the industrial chain, this study finds that resource tax reform has no significant impact on the environmental performance of upstream enterprises in the oil and gas industry chain, but significantly reduces the pollution emission level of downstream enterprises. Focusing on the pollution control behavior of downstream enterprises, this study finds that the resource tax reform significantly improves the green technology level and organizational management efficiency of downstream enterprises, optimizes and improves the clean production process of downstream enterprises. Simultaneously, it is found that the resource tax reform has not promoted the improvement of resource allocation efficiency. Through further exploration of welfare effects of resource tax reform from the perspectives of economic growth and industrial structure, this study finds that resource tax reform has a positive carbon emission reduction effect. Although it suppresses regional economic growth in the short term, it significantly promotes industrial transformation and upgrading.
Compared to previous studies, the contribution of this article is mainly reflected in: (1) This study directly examines the impact of resource tax reform on micro enterprise pollution emission behavior for the first time, providing a critical dimension for resource tax reform effectiveness assessment. Meanwhile, due to the advantage of enterprise pollution emission data, this study can further analyze key factors behind the pollution reduction caused by resource tax reform, namely whether the impact of emission reduction comes from structural factors under resource allocation or technological factors. (2) This study enriches relevant research on the impact of resource tax reform at the enterprise level. At the same time, by combining behavioral differences of enterprises at different positions in the industrial chain during the implementation of resource tax reform, a comprehensive analysis of the differential effects of resource tax reform on emission reduction from the perspectives of resource producers and users has deepened our understanding of the impact chain of resource tax reform on emission reduction. (3) This study explores multidimensional policy effects of resource tax reform from economic growth and industrial structure perspectives, providing possible practical paths for future resource tax system improvements to achieve win-win situations for energy conservation, emission reduction, and economic growth.
ZHANGH. Strategic interaction of regional environmental regulation: an explanation on the universality of incomplete enforcement of environmental regulation[J]. China Industrial Economics,2016,33(7):74-90.
TIANS Y, SUNL, XUW L, et al. Research on the promoting function of fiscal policy for enterprise transformation and upgrading under green and low carbon development goal:evidence from the pilot project of“comprehensive demonstration city implementing fiscal policies of energy conservation and emission reduction”[J].Public Finance Research,2022,43(8):79-96.
HUH R, SONGY Q. Market incentive environmental regulation and enterprise risk-taking: taking the pilot policy of carbon emission trading as an example[J]. Modern Economic Science,2024,46(4):73-87.
[11]
LEEC C, FENGY, PENGD. A green path towards sustainable development: the impact of low-carbon city pilot on energy transition[J]. Energy Economics,2022,115:106343.
HANC, CHENZ, WANGZ. Study on the mechanism of firms’ pollution reduction under the constraint of energy-saving target[J]. China Industrial Economics,2020,37(10):43-61.
LAIX D, ZHANW L. Impact and mechanisms of China’s top-10000 energy-consuming enterprises program on corporate green technology innovation[J] .China Population Resources and Environment,2023,33(4):104-114.
LINB Q, LIUX Y, ZOUC Y, et al. Resource tax reform: a case study of coal from the perspective of resource economics[J]. Social Sciences in China,2012,33(2):58-78.
ZENGX F, ZHANGC, ZENGQ. Research on the influence of the reform of the resources tax and the environmental protection tax on China’s economy[J]. China Population Resources and Environment,2019,29(12):149-157.
[20]
LIUH, CHENZ M, WANGJ, et al. The impact of resource tax reform on China’s coal industry[J]. Energy Economics,2017,61:52-61.
XUX L, CHENGQ, CHEY, et al. The impacts of resource policy adjustment on CO2 emission reduction and environment welfare: based on coal resource tax reform [J]. Journal of Management Sciences in China,2017,20(2):18-31.
SHAOZ Q, ZHANGZ X. How does the price-based reform of resource taxes affect enterprises’ profitability? A case study of crude oil and natural gas[J]. Finance Trade Economics,2018,39(5):5-20.
XUY J, XUX C, TIANF F. Flexible tax enforcement and corporate ESG performance[J]. Journal of Xi’an Jiaotong University (Social Sciences),2025,45(3):54-64.
PANGJ, XUY, SHIY C, et al. Income distribution effects of China’s energy resource tax reform on urban and rural households: an analysis based on CGE model[J]. China Environmental Science,2020,40(6):2729-2740.
WANGK Q, WUY T, LIUH M. An analytical framework and empirical study for TFP in Chinese energy mining industry[J]. Economic Research Journal, 2013,48(6):127-140.
LINB Q, YAOX, LIUX Y. China’s energy strategy adjustment under energy conservation and carbon emission constraints[J]. Social Sciences in China,2010,31(1):58-71.
[37]
FANM, LIM, LIUJ, et al. Is high natural resource dependence doomed to low carbon emission efficiency? Evidence from 283 cities in China[J]. Energy Economics,2022,115:106328.
XUX L, XUX F. Resource tax reform and regional “resource curse” in China[J]. Systems Engineering:Theory Practice,2015,35(9):2232-2241.
[40]
ZHANGB, CHENX, GUOH. Does central supervision enhance local environmental enforcement? Quasi-experimental evidence from China[J]. Journal of Public Economics,2018,164:70-90.
LIP S, CHENY Y. Environmental regulation, bargaining power of enterprises and green total factor productivity[J]. Finance Trade Economics,2019,40(11):144-160.
[43]
INKPENA, MOFFETTM H. The global oil gas industry: management, strategy finance[M]. Tulsa: PennWell,2011:20-22.
QIS Z, LINS, CUIJ B. Do environmental rights trading schemes induce green innovation? Evidence from listed firms in China[J]. Economic Research Journal,2018,53(12):129-143.
[46]
MELITZM J, POLANECS. Dynamic Olley-Pakes productivity decomposition with entry and exit[J]. Rand Journal of Economics,2015,46(2):362-375.
YUANH, ZHUC L. Do national high-tech zones promote the transformation and upgrading of China’s industrial structure[J]. China Industrial Economics,2018,35(8):60-77.