The Impact of Water Resource Tax on the Sustainable Development in Water-Intensive Industries: Evidence from Listed Companies

Abstract

China is taking measures to minimize the negative impact of the long-term extensive water use model on the water environment. The large number of zombie enterprises with high energy consumption and low energy efficiency in highly water-consuming industries is one of the important reasons for the water resource governance plight of China. Based on the quasi-natural experiment of water resource tax reform from 2016 to 2020, this paper uses the panel data of listed companies to quantify the impact of water resource tax on the zombification of high water consumption enterprises in this paper. The results show that the zombie degree of high water consumption enterprises after the implementation of the water resource fee to tax reform has become significantly higher, and this conclusion remains stable after a series of tests. The conclusion of this paper has major implications regarding sustainably developing zombie enterprises and highly water-consuming industries in terms of policy.