Does environmental labeling exacerbate heavily polluting firms’ financial constraints? Evidence from China

The Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection has enacted an environmental policy that restricts the investment activities of heavily polluting firms by increasing their financial constraints. In this paper, we examine the impact of environmental labeling on firms’ financial constraints. We document that the financial constraints of heavily polluting firms increase more than those of other firms after the issuance of environmental labeling. The debt and equity financing channels of heavily polluting firms are restricted, with smaller bank loans and less equity issuance in the future. The effect is stronger in firms that make a smaller contribution to the local government’s gross domestic product, receive greater media coverage, and are located in heavily polluted provinces. The environmental regulation is effective in increasing the environmentally friendly practices and decreasing the performance growth of heavily polluting firms. Our findings not only contribute to the growing literature on the factors influencing financial constraints, identifying the effects of non-monetary factors on financial constraints, but also provide more evidence for the underlying mechanism of efficient environmental policy. Our results also provide practical suggestions for investors and institutions on evaluating firms and for regulatory authorities on further implementing environmental policy.     

市场激励型环境规制可以推动企业技术创新吗？——基于中国碳排放权交易机制的自然实验

提高环境标准以推进企业低碳环保转型是供给侧结构性改革的重要内容。在众多环境规制的政策工具中,以市场激励为导向的排放权交易机制在西方国家得到了较为广泛的认可与应用,但是否同样适用于尚处在转轨期的新型中国市场还有待进一步检验。本文基于中国2013年开始试点实施的碳排放权交易机制,考察了市场激励型的环境规制对中国企业技术创新的影响。研究发现:碳排放权交易机制的实施显著推动了企业的技术创新,且当碳市场的流动性程度越高,该市场激励型环境规制对企业技术创新的推动作用更加明显。但企业成本转嫁能力会在一定程度上削弱该环境规制的积极影响,当企业所承受的产品市场竞争程度更低、企业对客户和供应商的议价能力更高时,碳排放权交易机制对企业技术创新的推动作用相对降低。综上,本文的研究不仅从市场激励的角度丰富了环境规制与企业技术创新的相关文献,同时也为中国碳排放权交易实施的政策效果提供了微观证据,研究结论可为后续在全国范围内统一推进碳排放权交易市场建设提供政策参考。     

对构建符合中国国情的生态税收体系的思考

不合理开发、利用自然资源和工农业生产所导致的生态破坏与环境污染给国家可持续发展造成的威胁是相当严重的。税收作为国家宏观调控的主要手段国之一 ,应承担起防治环境污染、促进生态平衡的重任。本文从治理环境的政策选择的角度 ,阐述了税收维护环境、平衡生态的特殊意义 ,并提出了构建符合中国国情的生态税收体系的基本思路。     

碳定价、双重金融摩擦与“双支柱”调控

本文构建包含异质性企业、双重金融摩擦和“双支柱”政策的DSGE模型来探究碳税和碳交易这两种碳定价政策对中国宏观经济的长短期影响和作用机制。研究发现:(1)两种碳定价政策均会导致经济在短期出现一定衰退,但在长期则有助于推进经济高质量发展,达到更高的均衡水平;(2)在面对碳排放技术冲击时,相比碳税政策,碳交易政策下,碳价大幅波动会进一步加剧经济波动,在碳交易市场中对碳价设定上下限,可以有效地减轻碳排放技术冲击所导致的经济波动;(3)面对气候政策冲击,包含金融部门风险规避的双重金融摩擦会进一步加剧气候政策对宏观经济的负面影响;(4)在经济转型过程中,结构性供需不平衡会引发一定的通胀现象,但此时货币政策不宜对通胀做出过多反应,而应刺激产出,支持绿色发展,推动供需平衡,从根源上解决通胀问题。引入“双支柱”调控后发现,考虑到经济转型风险的宏观审慎政策能显著减弱气候政策所导致的经济波动和金融不稳定,提高居民福利。     

Urban Ecological Enclosures: Conservation Planning,Peri-urban Displacement,and Local State Formations in China

Across contemporary China, city governments are unevenly territorializing peri-urban villagers’ land and housing by creating new urban ecological conservation sites. I analyze this emerging form of what I call ‘ecological territorialization’ through three interrelated spatial practices: comprehensive urban–rural planning, peri-urban ‘ecological migration’, and the distribution of institutional responsibility for conservation site financing, construction and management. Detailing this triad of territorializing practices renews attention to the relationship between conservation classifications that justify state intervention, uneven displacements of people from rural land and housing, and site-specific capitalizations that collectively consolidate urban government control over rural spaces. These practices emerge stochastically as state, private, and semi-state institutions capitalize on conservation projects in the context of legally and constitutionally underdefined land use rights and ecological land designations. In the current post-socialist moment of urban ‘greening’, these practices are key to producing frontiers of land-based accumulation and extending local state control across the peri-urban fringe. Urban ecological enclosures not only remake city-level state power but also shape rural people's relationships to land, labor and housing.     

Innovation,agile project management and firm performance in a public sector-dominated economy: Empirical evidence from high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises in China

While agile project management has become increasingly important for high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), firm performance varies greatly due to companies’ different degrees of innovation capability and internal and external environmental dynamics. Drawing on the resource-based view – as well as innovation capability and agile project management theories – a comparative analysis was conducted of two high-tech SMEs. The results were used to develop a theoretical model based on six hypotheses. Empirical research was carried out that included measurement of key variables, data collection and analysis, validity and reliability tests, regression analysis, and structural equation modeling, which confirmed five of the six initial hypotheses. The proposed model incorporates different innovation capability roles, considers project agility enhancement of firm performance, and takes into account interactions between companies’ innovation atmosphere and environmental dynamics in a public sector-dominated economy (i.e., China). The results contribute to project agility management’s theoretical development and refinement by presenting new findings on innovation and environmental dynamics. The results also provide guidelines for project agility practices in high-tech SMEs in China, with the potential to improve these firms’ performance. Implications and limitations are also discussed.     

Are regional systems greening the economy? Local spillovers,green innovations and firms’ economic performances

The adoption and diffusion of environmental innovations (EIs) is crucial to greening the economy and achieving win–win environmental/economic gains. A large and increasing literature has focused on the levers underlying EIs that are external to the firm, such as stakeholder and policy pressures. Little attention, however, has been devoted to the possible role of local spillovers of a sector/geographical nature as a factor that correlates with EIs and economic performances. A rich data set that covers the innovative activities and economic performances of firms in the Emilia-Romagna region in Italy, an area dense in manufacturing districts, is analysed. EIs’ drivers and effects on firms’ performance are investigated through a two-step procedure. First, we examine the relevance of spatial levers, namely, whether high rates of eco-innovators in a given local area induce the adoption of EIs in firms located in the same local area. The role of the ‘agglomeration lever’ turns out to be fairly local in nature: we find that spillovers are significantly inducing innovation within municipal boundaries. Second, we test whether EIs adoptions have significantly increased firms’ economic performances and find that some firms’ productivity performances are positively related to EI adoption.     

创新网络知识冗余及知识增量模型研究

知识冗余会影响知识传播效率,降低异质知识流强度,进而影响创新节点知识增量的产生。从关系维度、结构维度以及时间维度分析知识冗余对知识流强度的约束,提出了基于知识冗余的区域知识增量模型,进而通过分析创新网络对知识冗余的影响,以提升异质知识流强度为导向,探讨了知识冗余削减机制。     

朋友角色导向对产品创新绩效的影响

将企业作为社会人的影响纳入研究范围,可对其竞争优势的获取给出更全面的解释。基于动态能力视角与组织角色视角,对企业的朋友角色导向如何影响产品创新绩效进行探讨,分析朋友角色导向对产品创新绩效的促进作用,以及环境动态性对该促进作用的进一步调节作用,提出研究假设。收集上海市256家制造商的数据,利用分层回归对假设进行检验。研究结果表明：朋友角色导向不仅会直接促进产品创新绩效(即直接作用)的提升,还会增强战略柔性对创新绩效的正向影响（即调节作用）;环境动态性对朋友角色导向的调节作用会产生进一步线性调节作用,而对其直接作用却有非线性倒U型调节作用。此外,朋友角色导向对创新绩效的直接影响大于战略柔性这一具体动态能力的作用。研究展示了企业社会人属性对其创新绩效的影响,明晰了环境动态性对朋友角色导向影响的两种不同类型的调节作用,将朋友角色导向融入动态能力对企业竞争优势获取的解释体系之中,同时为企业创新活动的开展提供了一些新启示。     

中国制造业环境规制对技术创新影响的阶段性差异与行业异质性研究

首先,将技术创新划分为技术研发和技术转化两阶段,应用CES生产函数分阶段推导环境规制与技术创新的数理关系。其次,根据污染排放强度将中国制造业28个细分行业划分为重度污染型、中度污染型及轻度污染型3种类型,以2003-2012年行业面板数据为样本,构建分阶段分行业的计量回归模型进行环境规制对技术创新的实证检验。数理推导证明：环境规制与企业技术研发和技术转化在数理上均存在正相关关系。实证检验发现：①环境规制对中国制造业技术研发专利成果和技术转化新产品生产具有显著促进作用,波特假说在制造业整体上得到验证;②环境规制对中度污染行业、轻度污染行业的技术创新具有显著促进作用,但对重度污染行业的影响并不显著,波特假说存在明显的行业异质性。最后,针对环境规制对技术创新影响的阶段性和行业异质性提出了相关政策建议。