Economic and environmental influences of resource tax: Firm-level evidence from China

Abstract

The impact of resource tax on the sustainable development of micro-firms is still unknown. Using a unique micro-level dataset containing 5796 mining firms from 2008 to 2011, this study constructs an econometric model to examine the influence of resource tax on the economic and environmental performance of Chinese mining firms. The results show that resource tax has a significant positive impact on the economic and environmental performance of China's mining firms. Overall, a 1% increase in resource tax increases mining firm's total factor productivity by 0.1280% and decreases its carbon intensity by 0.0167%. The conclusion remains valid after alleviating the self-selection bias and endogeneity problems, and it also passes a series of robustness tests. Heterogeneity analysis shows that resource tax has a more significant effect on the economic and environmental performance of private mining firms, mining firms with high energy consumption, and mining firms in the eastern and western regions. In addition, resource tax promotes mining firms' technological innovation and improves their resource allocation efficiency, thereby benefiting the sustainable development. Further analysis shows that resource tax has anti-driving effect and incentive effect on technological innovation, mainly reflected in increasing the external pressure of mining firms and stimulating their investment initiative.