An Empirical Research On The Impact Of Resource Tax On China’s Resource Utilization Efficiency

Since China’s reform and opening up,the Chinese economy has achieved high-quality development.However,China’s economic growth has been achieved at the expense of excessive energy consumption and environmental pollution,and it is clear that the benefits of high energy consumption are disappearing.And in recent years our country also gradually began to pay attention to the protection of energy and the environment,and has made a new important commitment to green sustainable development,that is,the goal of achieving carbon peak and carbon neutral.Low-carbon emission reduction is an important means to achieve China’s "double carbon" goal.Under these policy goals,our country also begins from the tax policy and the financial policy,to apply the concept of promoting rational use of energy to the resources taxes,and to realize the "double carbon" goal to lay certain foundation as soon as possible.Among all taxes,resource tax is the most effective policy tool to control energy consumption and regulate energy utilization.With the reform of resource tax system in recent years,resource tax has been more and more effective in regulating the income of resource difference and increasing local fiscal revenue.However,there is still a gap to be improved in the functions of rational use of energy and protection of ecological environment.It cannot give full play to the role of resource tax in regulating the rational distribution of energy.Further reform and innovation of the system are needed to better realize the goal of "double carbon",build a green China,protect the living environment of the next generation and solve the problem of resource shortage,so as to realize the sustainable development of China’s economy and society.Starting from the research background and significance,this article introduces and sorts out the research on the impact of resource tax on energy utilization efficiency by domestic and foreign scholars,and proposes the research content and methods of this article,pointing out the existing shortcomings and innovative points.Then the concepts of resource tax and energy utilization efficiency were elaborated,and the theoretical basis and mechanism of action between resource tax and energy utilization efficiency were introduced,including how resource tax affects energy utilization efficiency in the production and consumption stages.It was analyzed that imposing taxes on energy can promote consumers’ rational use of energy,avoid unnecessary energy abuse,and improve energy utilization efficiency.Then,a brief review was conducted on the reform process of China’s resource tax,analyzing the income of resource tax,energy consumption,and output over the past two decades.Then,by introducing the changes in energy consumption per unit output value,the energy utilization efficiency of China in the past two decades was analyzed.According to these reflections,the problems of resource tax in promoting energy utilization efficiency are proposed,that is,the current resource tax system is not conducive to achieving the "double carbon" goal,the scope of resource tax collection needs to be further expanded,the distribution of resource tax income hinders the improvement of energy utilization efficiency,and the design of resource tax rate fails to highlight the scarcity of resources.Based on the previous analysis of the current situation,data on resource taxes and other influencing factors from 2006 to 2020 were selected to study the relationship between resource taxes and energy utilization efficiency through a fixed year effect model.Empirical analysis was conducted,and heterogeneity was detected through regional effects.Finally,empirical research found that resource taxes can promote the improvement of energy utilization efficiency.Secondly,the degree of openness to the outside world and technological progress also have the same promoting effect,while the expansion of the proportion of the secondary industry structure and the proportion of coal consumption have inhibitory effects on improving energy utilization efficiency.The results indicate that the improvement effect of resource tax on energy utilization efficiency still needs to be further strengthened.On the basis of the above conclusions,this article proposes suggestions that the direction of resource tax reform should focus on achieving the "dual carbon" goal,regulating the distribution of resource tax revenue,implementing dedicated funds,optimizing the tax rate design of resource tax,expanding the scope of resource tax collection,in order to better adhere to the concept of green development in China and achieve the "dual carbon" goal.