Environmental Regulation,Tax Contribution and Energy Efficiency of Enterprises:Evidence from the"Top 10,000 Program"
Balancing the effectiveness of environmental regulation with the socio-economic devel-opment is of paramount significance for China's achievement of the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals,and its gradual emergence as a key leader in global environmental governance.This paper utilizes regression discontinuity design to investigate how local governments reconcile these dual objectives,with the Top Ten Thousand Enterprises Energy Saving and Low-Carbon Action Implementation Plan(referred to as the"Top 10,000 Program")jointly issued by 12 government departments including the National Development and Reform Commission in Decem-ber 2011 serving as a representative of environmental regulation policies.The findings of this pa-per are as follows.(1)Environmental regulation policies have improved the energy efficiency of enterprises;(2)There is a significantly negative correlation between enterprise tax contributions and their energy-saving targets per unit of output;(3)Under the control of other conditions,en-terprises with higher tax contributions experience a smaller improvement in energy efficiency com-pared with those with lower tax contributions after being subjected to environmental regulation.The results reveal how local governments strategically allocate energy-saving targets to achieve a"win-win"situation of energy conservation and economic development in their respective regions.These findings provide essential insights for China's subsequent formulation and improvement of environmental regulation policies and further advancement of high-quality economic development.