The Change Of Local Government Officials And Environmental Investment

With the rapid development of China's economy,the problem of environmental pollution is becoming increasingly serious.Environmental protection concerns the national economy and people's livelihood,and is crucial to the sustainable growth of China's economy.Enterprises as one of the main bodies of environmental protection,How to guide enterprises to increase investment in environmental protection has become a research hotspot.The existing research mainly focuses on the impact of corporate governance,environmental regulation and other factors on environmental protection investment of enterprises,while the research on the relationship between government and enterprises is less.This paper regards environmental protection investment as a way for enterprises to rebuild the relationship between government and enterprises,studies the correlation between the change of local government officials and environmental protection investment of enterprises,and further discusses the regulating effect of market factors on the relationship.Firstly,this paper sorts out the institutional background of China's environmental protection,government officials' performance appraisal and the relationship between government and enterprises,and combines the market exchange theory,social capital theory and resource dependence theory to construct a framework system of the impact of local government officials' change on enterprises' environmental protection investment in the current period.Secondly,this paper selects all listed companies that disclosed environmental protection investment data from 2008 to 2017 as samples,uses regression analysis to empirically test the relationship between changes in local government officials and environmental protection investment,and groups the characteristics of successive government officials according to their source,age and expected term of office to study the differences in the impact of different types of successive government officials on environmental protection investment.Then,the factors of marketization degree and industry competition intensity are introduced to discuss the influence of the market environment faced by enterprises on the relationship between the change of local government officials and environmental protection investment.The empirical research found that:(1)during the sample period,the investment of listed companies in the whole industry in environmental protection investment showed a downward trend year by year,the overall investment scale was low,and the individual differences in environmental protection investment scale were obvious;(2)The change of local government officials has a positive impact on the environmental protection investment of enterprises,and this positive impact is not sustainable.The specific manifestation is that in the current period when local government officials change,the environmental protection investment of enterprises is significantly strengthened,but in the second year of change,the environmental protection investment of enterprises will no longer increase significantly;(3)Compared with local promotion,when the successor is transferred from other places,the increase of environmental protection investment is more significant.Compared with the older,when the successor is younger,the increase of environmental protection investment is more significant.Compared with the expected short term,when the successor is expected to serve a longer term,the increase in environmental protection investment is more significant;(4)A higher degree of marketization can inhibit the positive impact of the change of local government officials on the environmental protection investment of enterprises,while a higher intensity of industry competition can strengthen the positive impact of the change of local government officials on the environmental protection investment of enterprises.Finally,based on the above,this paper thinks that we should perfect the performance evaluation mechanism of government officials,perfect the legal system to regulate environmental protection investment,change the functions of local governments and improve the public finance system.From the perspective of rebuilding the relationship between government and enterprise,this paper analyzes the motivation of enterprises' environmental protection investment,enriches and expands the relevant research on the influencing factors of environmental protection investment,and provides policy reference for optimizing enterprises' environmental protection investment behavior and perfecting the marketoriented guiding mechanism.From the perspective of analyzing the motivation of enterprises to actively carry out environmental protection investment,this paper broadens the research perspective of influencing factors of environmental protection investment,enriches the research on the economic consequences of the change of local government officials,and provides policy basis for improving the performance evaluation mechanism of government officials and improving the environmental protection investment intensity of enterprises.