The impact of strict environmental regulations on firms heterogeneous choices of pollutant abatement technology

IF 9.8 1区经济学 Q1 BUSINESS, FINANCE

International Review of Financial Analysis Pub Date : 2025-09-03 DOI:10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104601

Zheming Yan , Yutong Lin , Kerui Du , Shuai Shao

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Abstract

This paper aims to explore how regional environmental regulations affect firms' choice of pollution abatement technologies. Using a novel city-level dataset on environmental regulatory stringency and a dataset on firm-level pollution in China, we investigate the effect of environmental regulations on firm responses, represented by the choice between production process control and end-of-pipe treatments. The estimation results from the difference-in-difference-in-differences analysis show that stricter environmental regulations induce production process control and end-of-pipe treatments in firms. More importantly, we find a substitutionary relationship between production process control and end-of-pipe treatments. The heterogeneity analysis suggests that small firms, firms with a low pollution abatement capacity, and firms in cities with special policy zones tend to choose production process control. In contrast, large firms and those with a high pollution abatement capacity prefer to choose end-of-pipe treatments.

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严格环境法规对企业污染物减排技术异质选择的影响

本文旨在探讨区域环境法规如何影响企业对污染减排技术的选择。利用中国城市层面的环境监管严格程度数据集和企业层面的污染数据集，我们研究了环境监管对企业响应的影响，以生产过程控制和管道末端处理之间的选择为代表。从差中差分析得出的估计结果表明，更严格的环境法规促使企业进行生产过程控制和管道末端处理。更重要的是，我们发现了生产过程控制与管端处理之间的替代关系。异质性分析表明，小型企业、污染减排能力低的企业和位于特殊政策区域的城市的企业倾向于选择生产过程控制。相比之下，大型企业和具有高污染减排能力的企业更倾向于选择管道末端处理。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

International Review of Financial Analysis BUSINESS, FINANCE-

CiteScore

10.30

自引率

9.80%

发文量

366

期刊介绍： The International Review of Financial Analysis (IRFA) is an impartial refereed journal designed to serve as a platform for high-quality financial research. It welcomes a diverse range of financial research topics and maintains an unbiased selection process. While not limited to U.S.-centric subjects, IRFA, as its title suggests, is open to valuable research contributions from around the world.