Environmental regulation and corporate exports: Quasi-experimental evidence from China's environmental protection tax law

How can we create a dual benefit scenario that improves both the ecological environment and export performance? This study aims to investigate whether the introduction of the Environmental Protection Tax Law (EPTL) has promoted the growth of corporate export. By treating the formal implementation of China's EPTL on January 1, 2018, as an exogenous economic event, this paper takes A-share listed companies in China from 2013 to 2022 as a sample and uses the Difference-in-Differences (DID) model to analyze the specific effects of the EPTL on corporate exports. The results indicate that the EPTL improves corporate exports significantly. Furthermore, the EPTL enhances corporate export capacity by increasing research and development (R&D) innovation, alleviating financing constraints and reducing agency costs. Additional analysis reveals that there is heterogeneity in the influence of the EPTL on corporate exports. Specifically, the promoting effect is stronger for corporates which are with larger scales, in non-heavily polluting industries, with higher levels of competition, in regions with weaker law enforcement, or in the areas with higher levels of marketization. This finding provides empirical support for understanding how the EPTL affects corporate exports through microeconomic mechanisms, offering important insights for evaluating the macroeconomic effects of the EPTL and refining related environmental policies.