An efficiency perspective on low carbon pilot city policy and carbon emission performance of listed enterprises: Quasi-experimental evidence from China

This study decomposes the influence mechanism of low carbon city pilot (LCCP) policy on carbon emission efficiency (CEE) at enterprise-by-year level. Specifically, we measure the CEE of enterprises by using two-step stochastic frontier (SF) approach with bootstrap techniques. At first step, we apply stochastic frontier regression to estimate group-specific technology, then combine with a stochastic meta-frontier (SMF) at second step to estimate the meta technology. We also take a quasi-experimental method to evaluate the impact of the policy implementation on CEE of listed enterprises. We find that the LCCP policy improves CEE by 0.928 % and 5.86 % for high-tech industry and public utility industry at 5 % significance level, respectively. Further, it also reduces CEE by 4.17 % for construction industry, which are both economically and statistically significant. This reduction is mainly due to the negative performance of their green innovations within the industry. Thus, these imply that the LCCP policy is highly in line with China's transformation and upgrading strategies. It boosts the development of high-tech industry and enhances the efficiency of resources utilization. But it still works weak for the enterprises with little green innovations . The findings of our study provide an essential reference for the implementation of regional-based policy of LCCP project and improving CEE at enterprise level. • We take the LCCP policy as a quasi-natural experiment with PSM-DID approach. • LCCP policy reduces the CEE of listed enterprises with the green innovation behavior performing negative. • LCCP policy narrows the technological gap among listed enterprises. • CEEs of listed enterprises are promoted in high-tech industry and public utility industry.