Research on the impact of energy transition policies on green total factor productivity of Chinese high-energy-consuming enterprises

All sectors of society have generally reached a consensus on the importance of the energy transition; however, how energy transition policies produce green effects on enterprises requires further investigation. Based on panel data from Chinese A-share listed enterprises with high energy consumption between 2007 and 2022, this paper establishes a difference-in-differences model to study the impact of the New Energy Demonstration City Policy (NEDCP) on enterprises' green total factor productivity (EGTFP) and its underlying mechanisms. Our results show that implementing the NEDCP significantly improves EGTFP, a conclusion that remains robust under various robustness checks. The effect of the policy is not permanent and exhibits characteristics of marginal decline. The NEDCP can enhance EGTFP through the “U”-shaped feature of environmental regulation and the optimization of urban new quality productive forces. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the NEDCP has a more significant positive effect on EGTFP in non-state-owned enterprises, energy enterprises, and non-resource-based cities. Therefore, we believe that the government should actively summarize experiences from policy implementation, expand the scope of demonstration cities, and stimulate the green transformation potential of enterprises tailored to local conditions.