The Effect Of The Increase Of Pollution Discharge Fees On Export Technology Complexity

Under the belief that clear waters and green mountains are as valuable as mountains of gold and silver,China’s ecological and environmental requirements are gradually improving.The 14 th Five-Year Plan calls for continuous improvement of environmental quality,in-depth implementation of sustainable development strategy,and comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development.As an important policy means of environmental regulation,pollution discharge fees will not only affect pollution control,but also affect the operating performance and export behavior of enterprises in polluting industries.In view of this,this paper investigates the effect and internal mechanism of the increase of pollution discharge fees on the export technology complexity of enterprises in polluting industries.By combing relevant literature,this paper calculates and analyzes the complexity of export technology at industry and enterprise level,and expounds the internal mechanism of environmental regulation affecting the complexity of export technology of polluting enterprises with porter hypothesis and externality theory.Taking the increasing of SO2 discharge fee standards in various provinces after2007 as a quasi-natural experiment.This paper empirically examines the effect and mechanism of the increase of pollution discharge fees on the export technology complexity of enterprises by using the multi-period Differences-in-Differences model and mediating effects analysis method,taking enterprises in high-pollution industries matched by industry database and customs database from 2004 to 2013 as samples.The empirical results show that the increase of pollution discharge fees has a significant positive effect on the export technology complexity of enterprises in polluting industries,and the results remain robust after changing the measures of export technology complexity,policy recognition conditions and possible sample selection problems.Environmental regulation affects export technology complexity through promoting enterprise innovation and improving product conversion.There is heterogeneity in the effect of environmental regulation on the export technology complexity of import enterprises,enterprises of different ownership types and enterprises of different asset sizes.The increase of sewage charges has a more significant effect on the technological complexity of enterprises that import and export at the same time,local enterprises and large-scale enterprises.Finally,some suggestions are put forward for the improvement of China’s environmental regulation policies and enterprises’ export technology complexity: strengthening environmental regulation policies and environmental law enforcement;Promote enterprise innovation,improve environmental regulation supporting policies;Strengthening the overall environmental regulation also needs to pay attention to the heterogeneity of enterprises and industries.