IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v197y2025ics0301421524004567.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Research on the impact of carbon trading on enterprises' green technology innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Xi, Bin
  • Jia, Weifang

Abstract

By treating the implementation of China's carbon trading policy as a quasi-natural experiment, the study analyzes data from A-share listed companies on China's Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges between 2010 and 2023. Utilizing a multi-temporal Difference-in-Differences (DID) model, multiple intermediary effect model, moderation effect model and threshold effect model, we probe to verifies whether carbon trading policy can generate innovation incentive effects and investigate the transmission mechanisms. Empirical results show that carbon trading policy are beneficial for the green technology upgrading of enterprises and that this incentivizing effect is persistent. Mechanism analysis reveals that the mediating variables of financing constraints and R&D investment exhibit a chain mediation effect and nonlinear characteristics. Once the thresholds of financing constraints and R&D investment are surpassed, the green innovation effect of carbon trading policy is significantly enhanced. Digital finance has a moderating effect on the chain-multiple mediation transmission mechanism. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the chain mediation effect is mainly observed in large-scale enterprises and enterprises in central regions. This paper offers theoretical support for evaluating carbon trading policy based on the micro-enterprise level and provides a scientific basis for how to efficiently play the function of carbon trading policy in practice, which helps to enhance the carbon trading policy and is of great practical significance for improving the operational efficiency of the national carbon trading market.

Suggested Citation

  • Xi, Bin & Jia, Weifang, 2025. "Research on the impact of carbon trading on enterprises' green technology innovation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:197:y:2025:i:c:s0301421524004567
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2024.114436
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421524004567
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2024.114436?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jiang, Jing Jing & Ye, Bin & Ma, Xiao Ming, 2014. "The construction of Shenzhen׳s carbon emission trading scheme," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 17-21.
    2. Ioannis Giotopoulos & Alexander S. Kritikos & Aggelos Tsakanikas, 2023. "A lasting crisis affects R&D decisions of smaller firms: the Greek experience," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 1161-1175, August.
    3. Jacobson, Louis S & LaLonde, Robert J & Sullivan, Daniel G, 1993. "Earnings Losses of Displaced Workers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(4), pages 685-709, September.
    4. Xu, Xiaofeng & Cui, Xiaodan & Chen, Xiangyu & Zhou, Yichen, 2022. "Impact of government subsidies on the innovation performance of the photovoltaic industry: Based on the moderating effect of carbon trading prices," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    5. Wang, Ying & Wang, Yong & Shahbaz, Muhammad, 2023. "How does digital economy affect energy poverty? Analysis from the global perspective," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    6. Ma, Guangcheng & Qin, Jiahong & Zhang, Yumeng, 2023. "Does the carbon emissions trading system reduce carbon emissions by promoting two-way FDI in developing countries? Evidence from Chinese listed companies and cities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    7. Charles J. Hadlock & Joshua R. Pierce, 2010. "New Evidence on Measuring Financial Constraints: Moving Beyond the KZ Index," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(5), pages 1909-1940.
    8. Dong, Zhaoyingzi & Xia, Chuyu & Fang, Kai & Zhang, Weiwen, 2022. "Effect of the carbon emissions trading policy on the co-benefits of carbon emissions reduction and air pollution control," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    9. Gu, Guangtong & Zheng, Haorong & Tong, Lingyun & Dai, Yaxian, 2022. "Does carbon financial market as an environmental regulation policy tool promote regional energy conservation and emission reduction? Empirical evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    10. Liu, Ming & Shan, Yanfei & Li, Yemei, 2022. "Study on the effect of carbon trading regulation on green innovation and heterogeneity analysis from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yuhang Dai & Rui He, 2025. "The Impact of Carbon Emissions Trading Policy on the ESG Performance of Heavy-Polluting Enterprises: The Mediating Role of Green Technological Innovation and Financing Constraints," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-22, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wang, Hai & Ye, Shuai & Chen, Hui & Yin, Junya, 2023. "The impact of carbon emission trading policy on overcapacity of companies: Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    2. Yuegang Song & Songlin Jin & Zhenhui Li, 2022. "Venture Capital and Chinese Firms’ Technological Innovation Capability: Effective Evaluation and Mechanism Verification," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-20, August.
    3. Ying Zhang & Yingli Huang, 2023. "Killing Two Birds with One Stone or Missing One of Them? The Synergistic Governance Effect of China’s Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme on Pollution Control and Carbon Emission Reduction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-25, June.
    4. Guo, Shu & Zhang, ZhongXiang, 2023. "Green credit policy and total factor productivity: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    5. Zhang, Dongyang & Bai, Dingchuan & He, Yurun & Sun, Qiaobing, 2024. "Synergistic abatement effects of Broadband China and environmental regulation: Firm-level evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    6. Yi, Yuxin & Zhang, Liming & Du, Lei & Sun, Helin, 2024. "Cross-regional integration of renewable energy and corporate carbon emissions: Evidence from China's cross-regional surplus renewable energy spot trading pilot," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    7. Wang, Weilong & Wang, Jianlong & Wu, Haitao, 2024. "The impact of energy-consuming rights trading on green total factor productivity in the context of digital economy: Evidence from listed firms in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    8. Tang, Chang & Xu, Yuanyuan & Hao, Yu & Wu, Haitao & Xue, Yan, 2021. "What is the role of telecommunications infrastructure construction in green technology innovation? A firm-level analysis for China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    9. Ye, Yongwei & Li, Chaoqun & Li, Xiaofan & Tao, Yunqing & Wu, Haitao, 2024. "The role of tax enforcement on green innovation: Evidence from the consolidation of state and local tax bureau (CSLTB)," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 221-232.
    10. Chen, Yufeng & Zhang, Shun & Miao, Jiafeng, 2023. "The negative effects of the US-China trade war on innovation: Evidence from the Chinese ICT industry," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    11. Hu, Shuo & Wang, Ailun & Du, Kerui, 2023. "Environmental tax reform and greenwashing: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    12. Na Yu & Jianghua Chen & Lei Cheng, 2022. "Evolutionary Game Analysis of Carbon Emission Reduction between Government and Enterprises under Carbon Quota Trading Policy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-22, July.
    13. Di Wang & Wei Dou, 2024. "Investigation on how carbon markets and digital transformation affect green innovation: evidence from Chinese listed companies," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(9), pages 22775-22800, September.
    14. Li, Quan & Sun, Haodan & Tao, Yunqing & Ye, Yongwei & Zhan, Kaiyan, 2023. "The fault-tolerant and error-correction mechanism and capital allocation efficiency of state-owned Enterprises in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    15. Huang, Jianye & Li, Yuting & Wang, Shuai & Zhang, Jingkun, 2024. "Tax credits for employee education expenses and firm-specific human capital accumulation: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    16. Geng, Yong & Liu, Wei & Li, Kai & Chen, Hanshu, 2021. "Environmental regulation and corporate tax avoidance: A quasi-natural experiment based on the eleventh Five-Year Plan in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    17. Hong Chen & Haowen Zhu & Tianchen Sun & Xiangyu Chen & Tao Wang & Wenhong Li, 2023. "Does Environmental Regulation Promote Corporate Green Innovation? Empirical Evidence from Chinese Carbon Capture Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-24, January.
    18. Wenqing Zhang & Jingrong Dong, 2023. "The Polarization Effect and Mechanism of China’s Green Finance Policy on Green Technology Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-26, June.
    19. Chen, Hongbo & Wu, Hao & Zhang, Lianjun & Tang, Yao & Lu, Shibao, 2024. "Does green financial policy promote the transformation of resource-exhausted cities? - Evidence from the micro level," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    20. Yadu Zhang & Yiteng Zhang & Zuoren Sun, 2023. "The Impact of Carbon Emission Trading Policy on Enterprise ESG Performance: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-27, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:197:y:2025:i:c:s0301421524004567. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.