IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/soceps/v89y2023ics0038012123002215.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Blessing or curse: How does sustainable development policy affect total factor productivity of energy-intensive enterprises?

Author

Listed:
  • Lee, Chien-Chiang
  • Zhong, Qiming
  • Wen, Huwei
  • Song, Qinghua

Abstract

The achievement of sustainable development in energy-intensive sectors is crucial for promoting long-term economic growth and stability. Utilizing the National Sustainable Development Plan for Resource-based Cities (2013–2020) (SDP) in China as a quasi-experiment, we examine the effect of sustainable development policy on the productivity performance of energy-intensive firms. Our analysis of data from Chinese listed companies between 2006 and 2020 reveals that the SDP significantly enhances the productivity performance of treated firms. Our investigation into the pathways towards sustainability reveals that these firms rely on both resource reallocation and technological innovation to cope with the impact of the SDP. Specifically, firms with stronger environmental regulations and more human capital tend to accumulate total factor productivity growth through technological innovation, while firms with greater resource dependence and political connections tend to benefit more from resource reallocation efforts. By exploring the mechanisms through which these policies impact productivity and sustainability, we provide valuable information for policymakers and managers to embrace heterogenous technology pathways towards sustainable development.

Suggested Citation

  • Lee, Chien-Chiang & Zhong, Qiming & Wen, Huwei & Song, Qinghua, 2023. "Blessing or curse: How does sustainable development policy affect total factor productivity of energy-intensive enterprises?," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceps:v:89:y:2023:i:c:s0038012123002215
    DOI: 10.1016/j.seps.2023.101709
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038012123002215
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.seps.2023.101709?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. Li, Qiangyi & Zeng, Fu'e & Liu, Shaohui & Yang, Mian & Xu, Fei, 2021. "The effects of China's sustainable development policy for resource-based cities on local industrial transformation," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    2. Paul Lanoie & Michel Patry & Richard Lajeunesse, 2008. "Environmental regulation and productivity: testing the porter hypothesis," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 121-128, October.
    3. Lori D. Snyder & Nolan H. Miller & Robert N. Stavins, 2003. "The Effects of Environmental Regulation on Technology Diffusion: The Case of Chlorine Manufacturing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 431-435, May.
    4. Chen Liu & Dongmin Kong, 2021. "Business strategy and sustainable development: Evidence from China," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 657-670, January.
    5. Cai, Xiqian & Lu, Yi & Wu, Mingqin & Yu, Linhui, 2016. "Does environmental regulation drive away inbound foreign direct investment? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 73-85.
    6. 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.
    7. Allen, Franklin & Qian, Jun & Qian, Meijun, 2005. "Law, finance, and economic growth in China," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 57-116, July.
    8. Goulder, Lawrence H. & Long, Xianling & Lu, Jieyi & Morgenstern, Richard D., 2022. "China's unconventional nationwide CO2 emissions trading system: Cost-effectiveness and distributional impacts," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    9. Daron Acemoglu & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2001. "Productivity Differences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(2), pages 563-606.
    10. Frederick van der Ploeg, 2011. "Natural Resources: Curse or Blessing?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 366-420, June.
    11. Xuan Tian & Jiajie Xu, 2022. "Do Place-Based Policies Promote Local Innovation and Entrepreneurship? [A model of growth through creative destruction]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 26(3), pages 595-635.
    12. Wen, Huwei & Lee, Chien-Chiang & Zhou, Fengxiu, 2022. "How does fiscal policy uncertainty affect corporate innovation investment? Evidence from China's new energy industry," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    13. Junming Zhu & Yichun Fan & Xinghua Deng & Lan Xue, 2019. "Low-carbon innovation induced by emissions trading in China," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-8, December.
    14. Michael Greenstone & Guojun He & Shanjun Li & Eric Yongchen Zou, 2021. "China’s War on Pollution: Evidence from the First 5 Years," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 15(2), pages 281-299.
    15. Elaine Romanelli & Olga M. Khessina, 2005. "Regional Industrial Identity: Cluster Configurations and Economic Development," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(4), pages 344-358, August.
    16. Zhu, Chen & Lee, Chien-Chiang, 2022. "The effects of low-carbon pilot policy on technological innovation: Evidence from prefecture-level data in China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    17. Huwei Wen, Shuai Chen, and Chien-Chiang Lee, 2023. "Impact of Low-carbon City Construction on Financing, Investment, and Total Factor Productivity of Energy-intensive Enterprises," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2).
    18. Wang, Zongrun & Fu, Haiqin & Ren, Xiaohang, 2023. "Political connections and corporate carbon emission: New evidence from Chinese industrial firms," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    19. Yi Che & Lei Zhang, 2018. "Human Capital, Technology Adoption and Firm Performance: Impacts of China's Higher Education Expansion in the Late 1990s," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 128(614), pages 2282-2320, September.
    20. Fan, Meiting & Li, Mengxu & Liu, Jianghua & Shao, Shuai, 2022. "Is high natural resource dependence doomed to low carbon emission efficiency? Evidence from 283 cities in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    21. Mushafiq, Muhammad, 2023. "Towards green development: Role of researchers," Innovation and Green Development, Elsevier, vol. 2(4).
    22. Hongshan Ai & Shenglan Hu & Ke Li & Shuai Shao, 2020. "Environmental regulation, total factor productivity, and enterprise duration: Evidence from China," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2284-2296, September.
    23. Lu, Hongyou & Liu, Min & Song, Wenjing, 2022. "Place-based policies, government intervention, and regional innovation: Evidence from China's Resource-Exhausted City program," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    24. Yahya, Farzan & Lee, Chien-Chiang, 2023. "Disentangling the asymmetric effect of financialization on the green output gap," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    25. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Wang, Fuhao & Chang, Yu-Fang, 2023. "Towards net-zero emissions: Can green bond policy promote green innovation and green space?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    26. Olley, G Steven & Pakes, Ariel, 1996. "The Dynamics of Productivity in the Telecommunications Equipment Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(6), pages 1263-1297, November.
    27. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Hussain, Jafar, 2023. "Energy sustainability under the COVID-19 outbreak: Electricity break-off policy to minimize electricity market crises," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    28. Lee, Chien-Chiang & He, Zhi-Wen & Yuan, Zihao, 2023. "A pathway to sustainable development: Digitization and green productivity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    29. Luo, Lianfa & Liu, Peiyao & Zhu, Fangjing & Sun, Yongping & Liu, Lingna, 2022. "Policy objective bias and institutional quality improvement: Sustainable development of resource-based cities," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    30. Lee, Chien-Chiang & He, Zhi-Wen, 2022. "Natural resources and green economic growth: An analysis based on heterogeneous growth paths," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    31. Albrizio, Silvia & Kozluk, Tomasz & Zipperer, Vera, 2017. "Environmental policies and productivity growth: Evidence across industries and firms," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 209-226.
    32. Zhou, Fengxiu & Wen, Huwei & Lee, Chien-Chiang, 2022. "Broadband infrastructure and export growth," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(5).
    33. Sachs, Jeffrey D & Warner, Andrew M, 1997. "Fundamental Sources of Long-Run Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 184-188, May.
    34. Wen, Huwei & Zhong, Qiming & Lee, Chien-Chiang, 2022. "Digitalization, competition strategy and corporate innovation: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing listed companies," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    35. James Levinsohn & Amil Petrin, 2003. "Estimating Production Functions Using Inputs to Control for Unobservables," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(2), pages 317-341.
    36. Shao, Shuai & Yang, Lili, 2014. "Natural resource dependence, human capital accumulation, and economic growth: A combined explanation for the resource curse and the resource blessing," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 632-642.
    37. Wu, Haitao & Hao, Yu & Ren, Siyu & Yang, Xiaodong & Xie, Guo, 2021. "Does internet development improve green total factor energy efficiency? Evidence from China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    38. Michael E. Porter & Claas van der Linde, 1995. "Toward a New Conception of the Environment-Competitiveness Relationship," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 97-118, Fall.
    39. Yang, Jingyi & Shi, Daqian & Yang, Wenbo, 2022. "Stringent environmental regulation and capital structure: The effect of NEPL on deleveraging the high polluting firms," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 643-656.
    40. Ren, Xiaohang & Zhang, Xiao & Yan, Cheng & Gozgor, Giray, 2022. "Climate policy uncertainty and firm-level total factor productivity: Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(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. Huang, Xiaozhi & Yao, Yuanhu, 2024. "The effect of executive team heterogeneity on firms’ total factors of production: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(PA).
    2. Xue, Qinyuan & Jin, Yifei & Zhang, Cheng, 2024. "ESG rating results and corporate total factor productivity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PA).
    3. Lu, Huaixin & Liao, Xinlin & Wu, Youqun, 2024. "From resource curse to green renaissance: Analyzing the dynamics of natural resource abundance on China's green total factor productivity during business cycles," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    4. Gong, Zheng & Gong, Liuji, 2024. "The financial geographic structure, Confucian culture, and corporate asset allocation efficiency," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    5. Gao, Peng & He, Ling & Hu, Shiyang & Xin, Qingquan, 2024. "Double-edged sword: Does strong creditor protection in the bankruptcy process affect firm productivity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PA).

    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. Xie, Yu & Wu, Desheng & Li, Xiaoyan & Tian, Suhua, 2023. "How does environmental regulation affect productivity? The role of corporate compliance strategies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    2. Guo, Shu & Zhang, ZhongXiang, 2023. "Green credit policy and total factor productivity: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    3. Peng, Jiaying & Xie, Rui & Ma, Chunbo & Fu, Yang, 2021. "Market-based environmental regulation and total factor productivity: Evidence from Chinese enterprises," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 394-407.
    4. Wang, Hong & Hu, Xuechen & Li, Hailing, 2023. "Regional production restriction policy and firms’ green transition: Evidence from Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    5. Guo, Yunxia & Yu, Mengyao & Xu, Mingchen & Tang, Ying & Huang, Jingran & Liu, Jia & Hao, Yu, 2023. "Productivity gains from green finance: A holistic and regional examination from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PA).
    6. Wen, Huwei & Wen, Changyong & Lee, Chien-Chiang, 2022. "Impact of digitalization and environmental regulation on total factor productivity," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    7. Bai, Caiquan & Liu, Hangjuan & Zhang, Rongjie & Feng, Chen, 2023. "Blessing or curse? Market-driven environmental regulation and enterprises' total factor productivity: Evidence from China's carbon market pilots," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    8. Cui, Xin & Wang, Panpan & Sensoy, Ahmet & Nguyen, Duc Khuong & Pan, Yuying, 2022. "Green Credit Policy and Corporate Productivity: Evidence from a Quasi-natural Experiment in China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    9. Huang, Youxing & Xu, Qi & Zhao, Yanping, 2021. "Short-run pain, long-run gain: Desulfurization investment and productivity," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    10. Maogang Tang & Silu Cheng & Wenqing Guo & Weibiao Ma & Fengxia Hu, 2023. "Relationship between carbon emission trading schemes and companies’ total factor productivity: evidence from listed companies in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(10), pages 11735-11767, October.
    11. Lin, Boqiang & Xu, Chongchong, 2024. "Reaping green dividend: The effect of China's urban new energy transition strategy on green economic performance," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    12. Yi Li & Lili Ding & Yongliang Yang, 2020. "Can the Introduction of an Environmental Target Assessment Policy Improve the TFP of Textile Enterprises? A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the Huai River Basin in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-19, February.
    13. Zhang, Ming & Zhao, Yingxue, 2023. "Does environmental regulation spur innovation? Quasi-natural experiment in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    14. Huang, Xinpeng & Meng, Fanshi, 2023. "Digital finance mitigation of ' resource curse ' effect: Evidence from resource-based cities in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    15. He, Yu & Zhu, Xiaobo & Zheng, Huan, 2022. "The influence of environmental protection tax law on total factor productivity: Evidence from listed firms in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    16. Yanhong Feng & Shuanglian Chen & Pierre Failler, 2020. "Productivity Effect Evaluation on Market-Type Environmental Regulation: A Case Study of SO 2 Emission Trading Pilot in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-27, October.
    17. Benatti, Nicola & Groiss, Martin & Kelly, Petra & Lopez-Garcia, Paloma, 2024. "Environmental regulation and productivity growth in the euro area: Testing the porter hypothesis," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    18. Li, Yanxi & Yu, Conghui & Shi, Jinyan & Liu, Yuanyuan, 2023. "How does green bond issuance affect total factor productivity? Evidence from Chinese listed enterprises," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    19. Jian Song & Yijing Wang & Jing Wang, 2022. "The Impact of SO 2 Emissions Trading Scheme on Firm’s Environmental Performance: A Channel from Robot Application," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-31, December.
    20. Xu, Yang & Liu, Xia & Yang, Liu & Yang, Xiaodong & Yan, Hongchuan & Ran, Qiying, 2023. "Exploring the impact of natural resource dependence on green technology innovation: New insights from China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(PA).

    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:soceps:v:89:y:2023:i:c:s0038012123002215. 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/seps .

    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.