The Impact of Environmental Protection Fee-to-tax Reform on Corporate ESG Performance — an Empirical Study Based on the Difference of Tax Burden Upgrading

Journal: Modern Economics & Management Forum DOI: 10.32629/memf.v7i2.5174

Han Zhang

University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China

Abstract

Taking the implementation of the Environmental Protection Tax Act in 2018 as an opportunity, based on a quasi-natural experiment on differences in tax increase quotas, this paper analyzes the differences in tax increase quotas using a double difference model to examine the impact of environmental protection tax policies on corporate ESG performance. Based on data from A-shared manufacturing companies listed in our country from 2012-2024, this paper finds that environmental tax reform significantly improved corporate ESG performance. Further research shows that both low-level and high-level tax increase quotas can promote corporate ESG performance, while there are “policy blind spots” in middle-level tax increase quotas. Heterogeneity analysis shows that there are significant differences in corporate ESG performance depending on corporate pollution levels.

Keywords

environmental protection fee to tax; tax burden upgrading difference; difference-in-difference model

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Copyright © 2026 Han Zhang

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