Environmental Regulations,Government Subsidies And Corporate R & D Investment

In recent years,the haze problem has caused a lot of attention from the public.The extensive economic development model has brought tremendous pressure on the ecological environment.With the improvement of public environmental awareness and people's living standards,the task of protecting the environment is urgent.The government successively issued a series of environmental protection laws and regulations.On August,2007,the State Environmental Protection Administration promulgated and implemented the "Notice on Further Regulating the Application of Listing or Refinancing Environmental Protection Verification of Production and Operation Companies in Heavy Pollution Industries"(Environmental Administration [2007] No.105),the "Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" came into effect on January 1,2018.In addition to the implementation of formal environmental regulatory policies,informal environmental regulations have also constrained corporate behavior.The Environmental Pollution Complaint Network was officially launched on May 19,2014,and a total of 3,687 complaints have been received by 2020.As the major producer of pollution,heavy pollution industries are under pressure from the government on the one hand,and they also have to accept supervision and complaints from voluntary organizations such as the public,environmental protection associations,local residents,and the media.Heavy pollution control pressure.However,in addition,in order to achieve long-term development,enterprises must have the ability to innovate and improve market competitiveness through continuous technological progress.This requires companies to increase investment in research and development and translate it into corresponding scientific research results.Facing the pressure of pollution control brought by the government and the public,whether the heavy polluting enterprises choose to continue to increase R & D investment to promote corporate innovation,or to focus their funds on pollution control has aroused heated discussions in the academic community.As the more developed area in China,the eastern region has relatively large environmental regulations and government subsidies,and its impact is relatively advanced compared to other regions.Therefore,based on the provincial panel data of heavy polluting enterprises in eastern China,this paper uses 2010 and 2017 as the observation period to explore a combination of norms and empirical methods to explore formal environmental regulations,informal environmental regulations,and R & D investment by enterprises in eastern heavy polluting industries.And whether government subsidies can strengthen the relationship between different types of environmental regulations and corporate R & D investment.After theoretical research and empirical testing,this article draws the following conclusions:(1)The study found that formal environmental regulations have an inverted U-shaped relationship with the heavy polluting industries in the east of the country.The current formal environmental regulatory intensity is on the left of the U-shaped turning point.Industry companies' R & D investment has a promoting effect.(2)The strengthening of informal environmental regulations has inhibited the level of R & D investment of enterprises in the eastern heavily polluting industries.(3)Government subsidies can enhance the positive impact of formal environmental regulations on corporate R & D investment and mitigate the negative impact of formal environmental regulations on R & D investment when the latter is too strong.(4)Government subsidies to alleviate the negative impact of informal environmental regulations on corporate R & D investment.The research in this article provides a new perspective for corporate innovation-exploring how environmental regulation affects corporate R & D investment,including formal environmental regulations and informal regulations,enriching related research on the influence of surrounding regulations on corporate innovation capabilities,and relevant departments can extract on this basis Information on the intensity of informal environmental regulations provides a reference for how to guide the public to rationalize environmental protection.In addition,this article confirms the role of government subsidies in the influence of environmental regulations on enterprises' R & D investment.Relevant environmental protection departments can propose to use government funds to achieve the coordinated development of ecosystem and innovation in heavily polluting companies.