Abstract
The environmental protection tax (EPT) is an important environmental policy in China. However, it remains unclear whether the EPT has reduced environmental pollution effectively since its implementation in 2018. Based on the panel data of 229 prefecture-level cities in China during 2015–2019 and the difference-in-differences (DID) model, this study empirically assesses the causal effect of the EPT on environmental pollution. It is found that the EPT has a significantly negative effect on industrial sulfur dioxide (SO2) and industrial soot (dust) emissions but has no significant impact on industrial wastewater emissions. The mechanism analysis reveals that the EPT has the tax enforcement effect and energy efficiency effect, that is, the EPT reduces pollution emissions through increasing actual tax burden and improving the efficiency of energy utilization. However, the innovation effect is weak, which is only effective in reducing industrial SO2 emissions. Finally, we compare how different types of cities responded to the EPT. The results show that the EPT has limited effect on environmental pollution in large cities and southern China.
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Data and materials are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Notes
Data source: https://stats.oecd.org/
12 provinces include Beijing, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Hunan, Jiangsu, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi, and Hainan provinces.
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This work was supported by the major project of the China National Social Science Foundation (grant number: 20&ZD092).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Qiuyue Yin. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Qiuyue Yin. Review and editing are performed by Yongsheng Lin, Bo Yuan, and Zhanfeng Dong. Supervision and project administration are performed by Zhanfeng Dong. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Yin, Q., Lin, Y., Yuan, B. et al. Does the environmental protection tax reduce environmental pollution? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 106198–106213 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-29898-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-29898-4