环境规制、加成定价与价格：来自中国造纸业的证据

摘要

This paper examines whether and how environmental regulation affects firm-level market power, using China’s water pollutant emission intensity regulation in the paper industry as a natural experiment. Implemented in Shandong Province in 2003, the regulation required firms to reduce chemical oxygen demand intensity by one-third. We find that the policy significantly reduced market competition by inducing firm exit, leading surviving firms in Shandong to increase their markups by approximately 4.4% over the four years following implementation. The higher market power contributed to higher product prices charged by surviving firms.