Research On The Technological Innovation Effect Of Environmental Protection Tax

While the process of industrialization has accelerated China’s economic development,it has also caused waste of resources and environmental damage in China.In the past,the barbaric growth method of the industry caused environmental pollution to develop from quantitative to qualitative changes,causing direct or indirect harm to the ecosystem and human health.China will need to take the road of industrialization for a long time to come.The increasingly severe environmental problems are testing the speed and progress of development,and sustainable development has become a global common demand.China attaches more and more importance to the coordinated development of the economy and the environment.The report of the 18 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clarified the construction of ecological civilization.In2018,the Environmental Protection Tax Law of the People’s Republic of China was officially implemented.While scholars began to pay attention to the economic effects of environmental protection taxes,they also began to realize the importance of environmental protection taxes on the effects of technological innovation.Many studies have suggested that environmental regulation has a good driving effect on technological innovation,and the part involving environmental protection tax is limited.At present,there are many disputes about the impact of environmental protection tax on technological innovation: on the one hand,whether the current environmental protection tax is suitable for the current policy orientation due to the translation of sewage charges;on the other hand,whether the environmental protection tax can promote technological innovation and affect How much.These disputes have left policymakers unsure about scientifically setting environmental protection taxes.Therefore,studying the technological innovation effect of environmental protection tax will help to explore the mode of common development of environment and economy,and conclude specific and feasible policy suggestions,which has important practical significance for improving the environmental protection tax to achieve sustainable development.This article reviews the theories and literature related to environmental protection tax and technological innovation,and divides their effects into three categories: positive,negative,threshold or "U" type.Then,the concept of environmental protection tax is described,and the mechanism of environmental protection tax on technological innovation is explained from the substitution effect,compensation effect and crowding out effect.Both substitution effect and compensation effect can effectively promote technological innovation of enterprises,and The crowding out effect reduces the incentive for technological innovation.Then,the evolution of the environmental protection tax and its current implementation and income are explained in detail: China’s environmental protection tax evolved from sewage charges.China officially levied the environmental protection tax in 2018,and the income from the environmental protection tax decreased by 31.33% from 2017.Due to changes in tax collection methods,tax calculation basis,etc.,and corporate data is difficult to obtain,the empirical part of this article uses 2012—2017 Shanghai and Shenzhen listed industrial enterprises’ sewage charges data to establish abenchmark regression model and a panel threshold fixed model.In the benchmark regression model,the environmental protection tax is used as an explanatory variable,and it is concluded that the environmental protection tax can promote technological innovation.Based on this result,a group regression is performed.Divided into large-scale and small-scale enterprises according to the average value of scale,it is found that small-scale enterprises will pay more attention to technological innovation than large-scale enterprises.In the panel threshold fixing model,it is verified that there is a double threshold,and the two thresholds for environmental protection tax are calculated: 0.137% and 0.694%.Through the double-threshold panel regression,we obtained an inverse "N" relationship between environmental protection tax and technological innovation,and concluded that the optimal tax burden range is 0.137% to 0.694%.Enterprises in this range can levy environmental protection tax can Effectively promote technological innovation.Dividing enterprises according to different tax burden ranges found that most of China’s enterprises are currently in the range of less than 0.137%,which is not conducive to environmental protection taxes to stimulate technological innovation.Subsequently,by analyzing the factors that environmental protection tax is not conducive to technological innovation,it is found that the following problems exist:the scope of taxation is narrow,the tax rate is low,the preferential policies need to be refined,the tax collection and management are not perfect.Drawing on the practical experience of the United States,Australia,Denmark and other countries,we propose perfect suggestions: broaden the scope of collection from air pollutants,water pollutants,and other solid wastes,increase environmental protection tax rates,and refine preferential policies.Finally,from strengthening supervision,Strengthen the construction of informatization,strengthen the cooperation between departments and improve the collection and management.