Environmental tax reform and green inventors: Evidence from Chinese listed companies

This study investigates the impact of the environmental tax reform in 2018 on enterprises' decisions of hiring new green inventors. We find that after the environmental tax reform, firms in heavy pollution industries will hire more green inventors than firms in low pollution industries. Additional analysis indicates that this influence is related to the nature of enterprise ownership, the degree of digital transformation, the ability of cost transfer along the supply chain and the level of local marketization. Our findings indicate that environmental tax reform can effectively enhance enterprises' environmental attention and promote their green development.