环境规制下的企业成本转嫁研究：机制、后果与治理

The costs pass-through could distort the micro-effects of macro-economic policies and lead to imbalances in social welfare. Current researches on enterprise costs pass-through mainly concentrated in the fields of tax burden and international trade, few have explored the impact of this behavior on the micro-effects of environmental regulation. This project combines the costs pass-through theory of economics with the cost-benefit analysis of corporate invest, firstly constructs an extended analytical framework of “environmental regulation – costs pass through – economic consequences”, and then with corporations as a sample to analysis following issues: (1)Whether environmental pollution costs internalized by environmental regulation would lead to the enterprise costs pass-through; (2)Whether the enterprise costs pass-through distort the micro-environmental effects of environmental regulation; (3)Whether the enterprise costs pass-through distorts the microeconomic effects of environmental regulation; (4)The governance mechanism for enterprise costs pass-through under environmental regulation. For the analysis of our project, it is helpful to deepen the understanding of micro-conduction mechanism of environmental regulation, reveal the ultimate destination of corporate environmental pollution costs, and provide new evidences for the distortion of micro-effects of environmental regulation. The project also provides some evidence for government to prevent corporate costs pass-through.

成本转嫁可能扭曲宏观经济政策的微观效应，并导致社会福利失衡。目前有关企业成本转嫁的研究主要集中在税负、国际贸易等领域，鲜有学者从环境成本转嫁的视角探讨这一行为的微观经济影响。本项目结合经济学的成本转嫁理论与企业投资决策的成本收益分析，首先构建“环境规制-成本转嫁-经济后果”的拓展性分析框架，然后以微观企业为样本探讨如下问题：（1）环境规制内化的环境污染成本是否会引发企业成本转嫁；（2）企业成本转嫁是否会扭曲环境规制的微观环境效应；（3）企业成本转嫁是否会扭曲环境规制的微观经济效应；（4）环境规制下企业成本转嫁的治理机制。本项目的研究有助于深化对环境规制微观传导机制的理解，揭示企业环境污染成本的最终承载归宿，并为环境规制微观效应的扭曲提供新的解释。本项目对政府部门治理企业成本转嫁行为也具有一定的参考意义。

成本转嫁是企业规避外部成本冲击的一种典型性经济行为，普遍存在于公共管理、国际贸易和税收等领域。尽管前期文献围绕环境规制的微观传导机制和经济后果已经积累了丰富的研究成果，但关于环境规制下企业是否存在成本转嫁，以及成本转嫁是否导致了环境规制微观效应的扭曲，尚未引起学者们的足够重视。基于此，本项目的研究旨在立足于前期文献的丰富成果和潜在不足，基于“环境规制—成本转嫁—经济后果”的分析框架，以环境规制为主线，以成本转嫁为抓手，以会计信息质量为着力点，多角度、全方位的探讨了环境规制对微观企业财务行为的影响结果及其作用机制。针对环境规制的研究表明，企业技术创新、企业风险承担水平、企业环境治理责任等财务行为受到其显著影响。针对成本转嫁的研究表明，企业慈善捐赠、企业金融化水平等策略性信息也受到了显著影响。此外，拓展性的研究进一步表明，控股股东股权质押、非执行董事、环保官员任期等因素显著影响了会计信息质量。本项目的研究不仅有助于进一步揭示环境规制的影响后果及其作用机理，对政策制定者、监管部门和投资者亦具有参考价值，而且在一定程度上弥补了市场型与命令型环境规制政策以及成本转嫁等领域文献的不足。