Research On The Impact Of Environmental Protection Tax On The Performance Of Corporate Social Responsibility

At present,China’s economic development is slowing down,and green and high-quality development has become the main theme of economic development,but the problem of environmental pollution and ecological damage is still serious.As the main force of China’s economic development,the ability of enterprises to practise the concept of green development is crucial to achieving sustainable,high-quality growth in China’s economy.However,the fulfilment of corporate social responsibility as a corporate investment will bring about a portion of the resources taken up and affect the current economic performance of the enterprise for a certain period of time,so most of the heavily polluting enterprises will not voluntarily choose to fulfil a high standard,requiring the government to enhance supervision and form policy pressure.The policy of environmental protection tax is a powerful means of government intervention in corporate pollution behaviour.So,can the implementation of an environmental tax instead of an emissions charge actually improve the fulfilment of corporate social responsibility?The answer to this question is of great significance in guiding the formulation of environmental protection policies and corporate environmental protection practices in China.In order to answer this question,this thesis takes listed companies in the heavy pollution industry as the main research object to explore the effect of the environmental tax levy on the fulfillment of corporate social responsibility and the optimization strategy.Specifically,this thesis constructs a quasi-natural experiment with the official levy of environmental protection tax in 2018 as an event,firstly clarifies the concept of environmental protection tax and social responsibility,and analyses its theoretical basis,further proposes research hypotheses as well as constructs a benchmark model.Secondly,based on the data of all A-share listed companies in China from 2015 to 2020,we empirically investigate the impact effect of the environmental protection tax levy on the fulfillment of corporate social responsibility and its mechanism of action.In terms of specific design,a dummy variable is constructed with CSR score as the explanatory variable,time and group as the dummy variables,and firm size,firm age,proportion of independent directors,and asset-liability ratio as the control variables,and a dichotomous difference model is constructed to investigate the effect of the imposition of environmental protection tax on CSR fulfillment in the full sample and in different internal and external environments.Finally,the empirical results are used as a basis for concluding and proposing corresponding policy recommendations.The study finds that for firms in heavily polluting industries,the imposition of environmental taxes has an enhancing effect on their level of social responsibility performance.Compared to non-state owned enterprises,enterprises with low levels of executive shareholding and enterprises in markets with high industry concentration,the environmental tax has a greater positive impact on the implementation of social responsibility by state owned enterprises,enterprises with high levels of executive shareholding and enterprises in markets with low industry concentration.Further,this thesis verifies the impact of green investment on the level of social responsibility fulfillment of heavily polluting enterprises and the economic consequences for enterprises after the environmental tax promotes the level of CSR fulfillment,concluding that:green investment will crowd out CSR investment,and enterprises with a low level of green investment will cover up their lack of green investment by increasing their social responsibility fulfillment,at which point green innovation investment and CSR However,the increase in CSR by the environmental tax effectively improves the corporate value.Finally,based on the empirical results,the thesis makes recommendations at the government level to further improve environmental protection tax regulations,increase enforcement and penalties,implement an effective environmental monitoring mechanism,and increase financial support for enterprises undergoing transformation to effectively promote environmental technology progress.The innovation of this thesis is to take heavy polluting enterprises as the main subject of research,to study the impact of the environmental protection tax on the enterprise level from the perspective of whether the environmental protection tax has truly and effectively played the expected role,whether it has played a due role in promoting the fulfillment of social responsibility of heavy polluting enterprises,and through the comparison of the effect of internal and external factors of enterprises on its impact,a more comprehensive measure of the effect of the environmental protection tax,also enriches the relevant previous scholarly It also enriches previous research by providing empirical evidence as to whether the fulfilment of corporate social responsibility has been affected by the policy,and is conducive to evaluating the effectiveness of the implementation of the policy in China.At the same time,it also helps companies to clearly assume their environmental responsibilities and adjust their green strategies appropriately,which can achieve the goal of reducing the cost burden arising from compliance with environmental regulations,creating a good corporate reputation for being green,improving the competitiveness of the company,improving the efficiency of resource use and achieving sustainable development of the ecological environment.