Research On The Effect Of Environmental Protection Tax On Air Pollution Reduction In China

In recent years,with the acceleration of industrialization,the problem of air pollution in China has become increasingly prominent,affecting public life and restricting economic and social development.In this regard,China has taken many measures to continuously promote the prevention and control of air pollution,fight the "blue sky defense war" with a higher standard,promote high-quality development and create a higher-quality life with a higher level of protection,and strive to build a beautiful China where man and nature coexist harmoniously.In order to protect and improve the environment,reduce pollutant emissions and speed up the construction of ecological civilization,China has implemented the Environmental Protection Tax Law of the People’s Republic of China on January 1,2018,using a strict legal system to protect the ecological environment.The introduction of the environmental protection tax law can not only promote the main body of high pollutant emission to take the initiative to change by increasing the tax burden,but also encourage the whole society to participate in air pollution prevention and control actions by tax incentives,and combine rich policy contents with pollution prevention and control plans to help solve the environmental pollution control problems in the process of economic development,promote the sustainable development of economy and society,and promote the construction of beautiful China.This thesis mainly explores the effect of environmental protection tax on air pollution reduction.First of all,on the basis of collecting and sorting out relevant literature and materials,the concepts of environmental protection tax and air pollution are defined,and the theories of public goods,externalities,Pigovian tax and sustainable development are sorted out to explore the mechanism of environmental protection tax on air pollution reduction,so as to provide support for subsequent research.Secondly,the present situation of air pollution and the implementation of environmental protection tax in China are discussed from reality,and it is clear that although China’s air pollution reduction has achieved certain results,the current air pollution situation in China is still very serious.Thirdly,based on the previous theoretical research and realistic analysis,this thesis takes the panel data of 30 provinces from 2011 to2021 as samples,selects the two-way fixed effect measurement model for empirical analysis,and carries out regional heterogeneity analysis and robustness test.The empirical research results show that:(1)Environmental protection tax is negatively correlated with sulfur dioxide emissions,nitrogen oxides emissions and smoke(dust)emissions,so environmental protection tax can reduce air pollutant emissions as a whole,but the emission reduction effect of sulfur dioxide and smoke(dust)emissions is more significant than that of nitrogen oxides.(2)The effect of environmental protection tax on reducing air pollutants is different in different regions,and the effect on reducing air pollutants in the eastern region is better than that in the central and western regions.Finally,based on the empirical results,this thesis explores the problems existing in the effect of environmental protection tax on air pollution reduction in China,mainly including the incomplete collection scope of air pollutants,unreasonable tax standards,unreasonable preferential tax policies,imperfect cooperation mechanism among departments,etc.,and puts forward some countermeasures,such as expanding the tax scope,raising tax standards,improving tax incentives,strengthening departmental cooperation,etc.,in order to improve the promotion effect of environmental protection tax on air pollution reduction and accelerate the construction of ecological civilization in China.