Could National Standards Upgrading Improve Firms’ Energy Efficiency? Evidence from the Pilot Program for Research on Important Technical Standards

China’s 15th Five-Year Plan emphasizes strengthening the guiding role of national standards in promoting the optimization and upgrading of traditional industries. Using the pilot program for Research on Important Technical Standards as a quasi-natural experiment, this study combines national standards data with firm-level microdata to examine the impact of national standards upgrading (NSU) on firms’ green transition. The results show that NSU significantly improves firms’ energy efficiency. To strengthen causal identification, this study employs multiple empirical strategies, including the incorporation of predetermined variables, a difference-in-differences-in-differences approach, and an instrumental variable approach. The main findings remain robust across a wide range of robustness checks. Mechanism analysis indicates that NSU improves firms’ energy efficiency primarily by stimulating technological innovation and increasing the share of clean energy inputs. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive effect is more pronounced for firms participating in the formulation of national standards and for state-owned enterprises. Further analysis reveals that NSU has no significant effect on firms’ end-of-pipe treatment. These findings provide important implications for advancing the green transformation of traditional industries through China’s strategy of upgrading national standards.