中央环保督察和企业进入:来自企业注册数据的证据

本文利用2013-2018年中国所有新建企业的注册信息,构建中国所有城市月度分行业的企业进入数据,并利用双重差分模型识别第一轮中央环保督察如何通过影响新企业进入进而影响中国的产业结构调整。结果表明,环保督察显著减少了民营、高污染行业的企业进入数量。此外,部分生产性服务业企业进入数量也受到环保督察的冲击。在督察组退出督察省份之后,其影响有随时间增强的趋势。环保督察促进了新建企业平均投资规模的增长,在一定程度上提高了行业集中度。考虑到环保督察政策常态化,本文有利于理解中央环保督察政策对产业的影响,并为环保督察政策的制度化和进一步完善提供依据。

Environmental Inspection and Firm Entry:Evidence from Firm Registration Data

Based on information obtained from the newly incorporated firm registration in China from 2013 to 2018, this paper constructs new firm entry data at different levels-urban, monthly and industrial-and adopts the difference-in-differences technique to identify how the first round of central environmental protection inspections(CEPIs) improves China’s industrial structure through the impact generated by the entry of these firms. The regression results suggest that CEPIs significantly reduce the number of firm formations in China, especially in the private sector and highly polluting industries. A spillover effect produced by CEPIs in some producer service industries is also revealed. It is observed that the impact of CEPIs in containing the entry of firms is even greater over time, which suggests that the policy impact on the industrial structure adjustment is long-lasting. The paper also finds that CEPIs promote an increase in the average investment scale by newly incorporated firms, thus, to some extent, intensifying concentration in the industry. Since the CEPI policy is a long-term initiative, the paper highlights its impact on the industrial structure and provides policy implications for the institutionalisation and further improvement of the CEPI policy in China.