Do state-owned enterprises really have better environmental performance in China? Environmental regulation and corporate environmental strategies

Although state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have long been criticized for being inefficient, they play a vital role in realizing social welfare including the improvement of environmental quality. SOEs are controlled by governments, so motivations and strategies to improve corporate performance distinct from their privately-owned counterparts. In this article, we propose that unique strategy adopted improving is high responsiveness government's goal. Using detailed firm-level dataset, find perform better pollutant assessed government targets while similarly unregulated compared with counterparts, indicating more responsive accountable meeting policy requirements. We further worsen after privatization, which consistent main results. With privatization worldwide, determining how avoid negative effects as well motivate for-profit key achieving win-win.