The Carbon Emissions Trading Policy of China: Does It Really Promote the Enterprises’ Green Technology Innovations?

The carbon emissions trading policy has profound impacts on the production and operation of enterprises. The aim of this study is to examine the effects of the carbon emissions trading policy on enterprises’ green technology innovations by using PSM−DID models. The results showed that: (1) the carbon emissions trading policy has a facilitating effect on green technology innovation of China’s enterprises in pilot cities; (2) there is significant spatial heterogeneity in this effect and it is extremely beneficial to enterprises’ green technology innovations in eastern China; and (3) the trading policy is proved to have significant positive effects on green technology innovations of non-state and non-high-tech enterprises, while it has no effects on that of state-owned and high-tech enterprises. The above findings were corroborated by the placebo test and other methods.