Carbon Emission Trading And Corporate Social Responsibility Performance

As the long-term goal of peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality has been propose in 2020,how to effectively play the role of various types of environmental regulations,guide industrial enterprises and other greenhouse gas market emitters to establish a sense of social responsibility and promote sustainable development strategies,and achieve environmental governance while maintaining the vitality of economic growth,is an inevitable development issue in China at this stage and in the long term to come.As a typical market incentive environmental regulation,the carbon emission trading system has been widely used by governments in recent years because of its long-term incentive attribute and low implementation cost.Studying the effect of carbon emissions trading system on corporate social responsibility performance and its mechanism will help to internalize the driving force of carbon emissions reduction and environmental governance,and accelerate the realization of high-quality transformation of China’s economy.Based on the data of Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2020,this paper constructs a difference-in-differences model to test the impact of carbon emissions trading system on corporate social responsibility performance,and explores whether this process plays a role through the scale effect or price effect of the carbon market.Further analyze the mechanism role of green innovation and financial constraints in this process.The final conclusions are as follows:(1)Carbon emission trading system can significantly promote corporate social responsibility performance,and this implementation effect comes from both scale effect and price effect.(2)According to the heterogeneity analysis,compared to enterprises located in lower market competition and central and western regions,the carbon emission trading system plays a more significant role in promoting the social responsibility performance of enterprises located in higher market competition and eastern regions.(3)According to the mechanism test,green innovation and financial constraints play a mechanism role in the process of carbon emissions trading system affecting corporate social responsibility performance.Specifically,the carbon emissions trading system has significantly promoted substantive and strategic green innovation,and alleviated financial constraints by improving the information environment and reducing agency costs,providing advanced technical guidance and sufficient financial support for enterprises to fulfill their social responsibilities.The above findings enrich empirical evidence on the implementation effect of the carbon emissions trading system at the micro level,and provide useful inspiration for further promoting the construction of the national carbon market.Therefore,China should accelerate the construction of the national carbon market covering all provinces,cities and industries,and expand the positive effect of the carbon emission trading system on corporate social responsibility.When formulating the carbon market trading mechanism,we should adjust measures to local conditions,focus on strengthening the supervision of enterprises in the central and western regions and industries with low level of market competition,and ensure the development rights of different regions and enterprises.At the same time,we should focus on guiding enterprises to respond to the environmental compliance costs brought by the carbon emission trading system with green innovation.And by participating in the carbon market,the enterprises can improve the level of information disclosure and reduce the agency costs,so as to accumulate more sufficient financial support to fulfill social responsibilities.And then,they can better maintain the legitimacy of enterprises and achieve sustainable development strategies.