财税与公共管理学院知识库

在全球可持续发展的大背景下，环境保护已成为社会各界关注的核心议题。随着气候变化、资源枯竭和环境污染等问题的加剧，如何实现经济增长与环境保护的协同发展，已经成为政府、企业和社会的共同目标。环境保护税作为一种市场化手段，以“污染者付费”原则为核心，通过对污染行为征税，显著增加企业的生产成本，倒逼企业减少污染排放，提升其环境责任，处于产业链关键位置的重污染企业亟待优化生产模式和环境治理效能，通过引入绿色技术、提高资源利用效率、优化管理结构等降低税负，直接或间接推动企业ESG表现的提升，且良好的ESG表现不仅可以提升企业的社会声誉，还会吸引更多的绿色投资，增强企业在市场竞争中的长期优势。因此，深入研究环境保护税对企业ESG表现的影响，揭示政策在推动可持续发展中的具体作用路径，对提升重污染企业ESG表现、促进企业形成长期价值创造能力意义深远。

通过梳理环境保护税与企业ESG表现的相关文献，归纳总结企业ESG表现的影响因素和经济效益以及环境保护税的政策效应，结合相关理论基础，界定相关变量，系统探讨环境保护税对重污染企业ESG表现的影响机制，重点分析绿色技术创新和企业环保投资的中介作用。与传统研究不同，本研究不仅关注政策对企业行为的直接影响，还将企业内部的创新能力和环保投资纳入分析框架，揭示政策效应的复杂性和多样性。此外，本研究通过异质性分析探索企业性质、高管环保背景及区域税率调整的差异化影响，为优化政策设计和实施提供更具针对性的建议。研究发现：（1）基准回归结果中，环境保护税的实施总体上表现为促进企业ESG表现的状态；（2）中介效应结果表明环境保护税会通过促进企业绿色技术创新和环保投资推动企业ESG表现的提升；（3）异质性分析中，环境保护税促进重污染企业ESG表现在高管环保背景、企业产权性质和环境保护税税率方面都存在显著差异。从高管环保背景方面来看，环境保护税促进了雇佣环保背景高管企业的ESG表现，对未雇佣环保背景高管企业的ESG表现影响不明显。从产权性质来看，环境保护税促进了国有重污染企业ESG表现，但对非国有重污染企业ESG表现的影响不明显。从环境保护税税率方面来看，环境保护税促进了税率提升地区的企业ESG表现，但对税率平移地区的企业ESG表现影响不明显。最后基于上述结论，提出通过环境保护税促进重污染企业ESG表现的相关政策建议。

In the context of global sustainable development, environmental protection has become a central issue of concern across various sectors. As problems such as climate change, resource depletion, and environmental pollution intensify, the question of how to achieve a symbiotic development of economic growth and environmental protection has become a shared goal for governments, enterprises, and society. Environmental protection taxes, as a market-based mechanism, are centered on the "polluter pays" principle. By taxing polluting activities, they significantly increase production costs for enterprises, compelling them to reduce pollution emissions and enhance their environmental responsibility. Heavy-pollution enterprises, which are positioned at critical points in the industrial chain, urgently need to optimize production models and environmental governance effectiveness. By introducing green technologies, improving resource utilization efficiency, and optimizing management structures, they can lower their tax burdens, thereby directly or indirectly improving their ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) performance. Good ESG performance not only enhances a company’s social reputation but also attracts more green investments, strengthening its long-term competitive advantage in the market. Therefore, studying the impact of environmental protection taxes on corporate ESG performance and uncovering the specific role of policies in promoting sustainable development are of significant importance in enhancing the ESG performance of heavy-polluting enterprises and fostering the creation of long-term corporate value.

By reviewing relevant literatures on the environmental protection tax and the ESG performance of enterprises, this paper summarizes the influencing factors and economic benefits of enterprises' ESG performance, as well as the policy effects of the environmental protection tax. Combined with relevant theoretical foundations, it defines relevant variables and systematically explores the impact mechanism of the environmental protection tax on the ESG performance of heavily polluting enterprises, with a focus on analyzing the mediating roles of green technology innovation and corporate environmental protection investment. Different from traditional research, this study not only focuses on the direct impact of policies on corporate behavior, but also incorporates the innovation capabilities and environmental protection investment within enterprises into the analysis framework, revealing the complexity and diversity of policy effects. In addition, through a heterogeneity analysis, this study explores the differential impacts of the nature of enterprises, the environmental protection background of senior executives, and regional tax rate adjustments, providing more targeted suggestions for optimizing policy design and implementation. The study finds that: (1) In the results of the benchmark regression, the implementation of the environmental protection tax generally promotes the ESG performance of enterprises; (2) The results of the mediating effect show that the environmental protection tax will promote the improvement of enterprises' ESG performance by promoting green technology innovation and environmental protection investment; (3) In the heterogeneity analysis, there are significant differences in the promotion of the ESG performance of heavily polluting enterprises by the environmental protection tax in terms of the environmental protection background of senior executives, the nature of enterprise property rights, and the tax rate of the environmental protection tax. In terms of the environmental protection background of senior executives, the environmental protection tax has promoted the ESG performance of enterprises that employ senior executives with an environmental protection background, and has no obvious impact on the ESG performance of enterprises that do not employ senior executives with an environmental protection background. In terms of the nature of property rights, the environmental protection tax has promoted the ESG performance of state-owned heavily polluting enterprises, but has no obvious impact on the ESG performance of non-state-owned heavily polluting enterprises. In terms of the tax rate of the environmental protection tax, the environmental protection tax has promoted the ESG performance of enterprises in regions where the tax rate has been increased, but has no obvious impact on the ESG performance of enterprises in regions where the tax rate remains unchanged. Finally, based on the above conclusions, relevant policy recommendations are put forward to promote the ESG performance of heavily polluting enterprises through the environmental protection tax.