Market-based environmental regulation and investment efficiency of tourism enterprises:micro-evidence from environmental tax reform

Market-based environmental regulations have important policy significance in improving the investment efficiency of tourism enterprises and promoting high-quality development of tourism economy and ecological environment. This article takes the listed tourism companies in China’s A-share market from 2010 to 2022 as samples, uses the difference-in-differences method, and tests the impact of environmental tax reform on the investment efficiency of tourism enterprises from a micro perspective. The results show that environmental tax reform can promote the investment efficiency of tourism enterprises. Environmental tax reform can reduce financing constraints for tourism enterprises, thereby reducing information asymmetry and agency costs, and promoting the investment efficiency of tourism enterprises. Considering the heterogeneity of enterprise nature and characteristics, it is found that the promoting effect of environmental tax reform on the investment efficiency of tourism enterprises is mainly reflected in non-state-owned enterprises and high digital transformation enterprises. The above results can provide practical significance for further improving environmental tax reform and improving the investment efficiency of tourism enterprises.