| 刘啟仁,张欠.贸易侧环境规制与高质量创业——来自2018年禁止进口废塑料政策的经验证据[J].数量经济技术经济研究,2025,(10):156-175 | | 贸易侧环境规制与高质量创业——来自2018年禁止进口废塑料政策的经验证据 | | Environmental Regulation on the Trade Side and High-quality Entrepreneurship: Empirical Evidence from the Plastic Waste Import Ban in 2018 | | | | DOI： | | 中文关键词: 禁止进口废塑料 创业数量 创业质量 | | 英文关键词: Plastic Waste Import Ban Entrepreneurial Quantity Entrepreneurial Quality | | 基金项目: | | | 中文摘要: | | 环境保护与创业激励的协调推进是经济高质量发展的必然要求。本文基于2018年禁止进口废塑料政策，利用2010~2021年中国工商注册企业及其专利数据考察该贸易侧的环境规制政策对创业数量与质量的影响。研究发现，该政策显著抑制了新注册企业的数量，但该抑制效应在政策两期后快速削弱；该政策主要通过成本效应、进入壁垒机制抑制创业数量的增长。然而，无论是考虑新进企业的创新能力，还是考虑新进企业的存活率和存活时间，结果均表明该政策有助于创业质量的提升。本研究结论为政府相关环境政策评估和激发市场活力等方面提供了重要的实践启示。 | | 英文摘要: | | As the largest developing country, China achieved rapid economic growth in the early stages through trade, but it was not without several environmental problems. Under the imperative of high-quality development, achieving a balance between the economy and environment requires environmental policy design to consider the environmental problems caused by trade and implement environmental regulations for international trade. Due to the increasing conflicts between trade and the environment, the tightening of environmental regulations is an undeniable reality. This increases the operational costs of upstream and downstream enterprises and raises the barriers to entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, it can also serve as an opportunity to drive economic transformation and create new fields for entrepreneurship, thereby stimulating high-quality entrepreneurial activities. Therefore, how trade-related environmental regulations influence the “quantity” and “quality” of entrepreneurship is a significant issue that urgently needs clarification. To shed light on this issue, this study analyzes the plastic waste import ban in 2018.Based on Chinese industrial and commercial registration data from 2010 to 2021, this study employs the difference-in-differences (DID) method to examine the impact of this environmental policy on both the quantity and quality of new firm entries. The findings are as follows: First, the import ban significantly reduces the number of newly registered firms. This result remains robust even after a series of robustness checks. Second, the entrepreneurial effects of the import ban are more pronounced in cities with stricter environmental regulations. Meanwhile, the policy effects are more evident in industries with larger state-owned enterprises and high-tech industries. Third, the import ban primarily suppresses entrepreneurial activities through the cost effect and entry barrier mechanisms. Fourth, although the waste plastic import ban reduces the number of new entrants, it attracts more innovative and competitive new firms, thereby improving the quality of entrepreneurship in the industry. Further analysis reveals that the ban significantly enhances entrepreneurial quality, as evidenced by increases in the number of patent applications by new firms, the number of patent applications that are granted, the proportion of new firms applying for patents, and the survival rate and longevity of new entrants. Moreover, industries with higher dependence on plastic experienced a more rapid improvement in entrepreneurial quality following the implementation of this environmental policy.The contributions of this study are as follows: First, unlike existing literature that primarily focuses on the trade and environmental quality effects of the waste plastics import ban, this study concentrates on its impact on entrepreneurial activities within industries. It not only examines how the import ban influences the number of new entrants but also explores, from the dimensions of firm innovation and survival, how the entry of high-quality firms induced by the import ban drives industrial transformation and upgrading. This study enriches the evaluation of the import ban’s broader effects and provides a valuable supplement to entrepreneurship research by considering both the quantity and quality dimensions of entrepreneurial activities. Second, this study constructs a city-industry-year level dataset by matching firm registration data with customs data, offering a solid data foundation to capture the relationship between the import ban and entrepreneurship.Furthermore, we combine the DID approach with a shift-share instrumental variable strategy to address endogeneity concerns, thereby identifying the causal impact and underlying mechanisms of the import ban on entrepreneurial activities. This enables a scientific assessment of the entrepreneurial effects of the policy. Third, this study builds a theoretical framework based on cost effects, technological entry barriers, and institutional entry barriers and systematically reveals how the waste plastics import ban influences the entry decisions of new entrepreneurs. This offers strong empirical evidence on how trade-related environmental regulations affect entrepreneurial activities in industries. At a higher level, the findings provide practical insights for policymakers in designing complementary measures that stimulate market dynamism under strict environmental policies. | | 查看全文 相关附件： 下载数据代码附录 |
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