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Do public environmental concerns promote new energy enterprises' development? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment

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  • Gu, Yan
  • Ho, Kung-Cheng
  • Xia, Senmao
  • Yan, Cheng

Abstract

We examine whether the public environmental concerns promote the development of new energy enterprises through a quasi-experiment China's extreme event of 2011 when the PM2.5 Surge incident escalated public environmental concerns. After this incident, the market power of new energy enterprises in severely polluted regions became 108% higher than that in the mildly polluted regions. It implies that public environmental concerns promote the development of new energy enterprises. This observation is limited to non-state-owned companies, companies without political connections, and regions without new energy subsidies. This increased market power of new energy enterprises with increasing public environmental concerns was because of sales increase instead of reduced non-operational costs. Overall, this study answers several interesting questions associated with the increasing public environmental concerns and the rapid development of energy enterprises.

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  • Gu, Yan & Ho, Kung-Cheng & Xia, Senmao & Yan, Cheng, 2022. "Do public environmental concerns promote new energy enterprises' development? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:109:y:2022:i:c:s0140988322001438
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2022.105967
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    Cited by:

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    6. Tao, Yunqing & Wang, Dianjie & Ye, Yongwei & Wu, Haitao & Zhang, Yao, 2023. "The role of public environmental concern on corporate social responsibility: Evidence from search index of web users," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    7. Lin, Boqiang & Zhang, Aoxiang, 2023. "Government subsidies, market competition and the TFP of new energy enterprises," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    8. Xingneng Xia & Ruoxi Yu & Sheng Zhang, 2023. "Evaluating the Impact of Smart City Policy on Carbon Emission Efficiency," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-18, June.
    9. Ho, Kung-Cheng & Yan, Cheng & Mao, Zhicheng & An, Jiafu, 2023. "Corporate sustainability policies and corporate investment efficiency: Evidence from the quasi-natural experiment in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PB).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public environmental concern; New energy enterprises; Market power; PM2.5 surge; Extreme event;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • N72 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-

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