Can new infrastructure reverse the growth with pollution profit growth pattern? An empirical analysis based on listed companies in China

With the increasing severity of environmental regulations, Chinese enterprises are gradually transforming from the profit growth pattern of growth with pollution to green development. However, this paper finds that this transformation is not complete. While catering to the national environmental protection governance requirements, some enterprises still persist the profit growth pattern of growth with pollution. How to solve this problem? By attracting government subsidies, reducing tax burdens, and increasing the proportion of technical personnel employed, we theoretically and empirically demonstrate that the positive effect of new infrastructure in accelerating enterprises' transformation away from the profit growth pattern of growth with pollution to sustainable development. In the heterogeneity analysis section, we found that in enterprises with higher political correlation, more technical personnel, and lower labor cost, the new infrastructure has a stronger restraining effect on the growth with pollution pattern.

Automated summary

With the increasing severity of environmental regulations, Chinese enterprises are gradually shifting towards green development. However, this transformation is not complete. This paper demonstrates the positive effect of new infrastructure in accelerating the transformation of enterprises away from the profit growth pattern of growth with pollution to sustainable development, by attracting government subsidies, reducing tax burdens, and increasing the proportion of technical personnel employed.