The effects of government environmental regulations on enterprise technological innovation under the pressure of carbon tariffs

Now China is facing the great pressure of carbon tariffs. Chinese government increases the intensity of energy saving gradually, strengthens the low-carbon regulations and appeals to the low-carbon economy in order to get rid of it radically. The industries of high energy consumption and high carbon emissions can only deal with government environmental regulations through making technological innovation, improving energy efficiency and developing new energy. Based on the background of low-carbon economy, this paper analyzes the effects that government environmental regulations have on the technological innovation. Such effects are testified in this paper through constructing R&D input-output function with the panel data of 36 industries from 2000 to 2008. The empirical results show that government low-carbon regulations play a positive role in technological innovation, which is more obvious in the lagged period. In addition, the promotion is seriously different among various industries.