Recently, the paper Energy Conservation Target Constraints and Supply Chain Carbon Emission Reduction was published in the 7th issue of Economic Research (2025). The first author of the paper is Tu Xiwei, a 2024 doctoral graduate from BNUBS, and the corresponding author is Professor Zhang Pingdan of BNUBS.

Based on the supply chain matching data of listed companies, the paper explores the impact and mechanism of the Implementation Plan for Energy Conservation and Low-Carbon Actions of Ten Thousand Enterprises on carbon emissions at each node of the supply chain. The study finds that this energy conservation and emission reduction policy can significantly curb carbon emissions of regulated enterprises and upstream suppliers, but its effect on downstream customers' carbon emissions is not significant. Mechanism analysis shows that the policy promotes carbon emission reduction of regulated enterprises through capacity adjustment and green low-carbon technological innovation, and achieves carbon emission reduction of upstream suppliers through supply-demand matching and supply chain competition. However, the green low-carbon technological innovation mechanism is not significant among upstream suppliers and downstream customers. Further research reveals that the policy has promoted the transformation of urban economic structure towards the tertiary industry, but faces certain resource misallocation and economic efficiency losses.

The marginal contributions of the paper are reflected in four aspects: (1) In terms of research topic, it extends the policy effect of environmental regulation to the supply chain and resets the empirical logic of the Porter Hypothesis in China. From the perspective of actual national conditions, examining the policy effect of environmental regulation based on the supply chain network is more in line with the reality of China's industrial development. Carbon emissions of China's manufacturing industry run through the entire supply chain and all links. Simply reducing energy consumption, emissions and pollution in a single link or enterprise cannot effectively promote the achievement of the "dual carbon" goals. This requires the evaluation of environmental regulation policy effects to break through the traditional analytical framework and shift to the entire supply chain covering "upstream suppliers - regulated enterprises - downstream customers". Correspondingly, the paper opens up a new analytical perspective for subsequent research. (2) In terms of research proposition, it discusses the micro-impact of energy conservation target constraints from the perspective of output adjustment, and the macro-impact from the perspective of resource misallocation and economic efficiency, enriching the research on the consistency of policy orientations between non-economic policies and economic policies. The study reveals the potential tension between "local emission reduction" and "overall efficiency" in the implementation of energy conservation policies, and identifies enterprise capacity adjustment as the key hub connecting policy tools and macroeconomic effects. This integrated micro-macro analytical framework provides a new perspective for understanding the inherent connection between ecological and environmental policies and economic growth goals. Especially in the context of "strengthening the consistency of macro policy orientations", it offers policy implications for coordinating energy conservation, carbon reduction and high-quality economic development. (3) In terms of the transmission of supply chain spillover, it deepens the transmission mechanism from the perspective of supply chain competition, and orients the direction and intensity of supply chain spillover through position and correlation, thus advancing the analysis of supply chain spillover. The paper achieves important innovations in the dimension of heterogeneous research on supply chain transmission. By introducing the analytical dimensions of industrial chain position and correlation, it accurately depicts the differences in the direction and intensity of energy conservation policy spillover effects, deepens the theoretical and empirical understanding of the heterogeneity of supply chain spillover effects, breaks through the limitations of individual micro-enterprise research, and provides key basis for the precise implementation of low-carbon policies from the perspective of industrial chain collaboration. It also offers scientific support for building a collaborative governance system of the supply chain under the "dual carbon" goals, with significant practical policy guiding value. (4) In terms of data processing and causal identification, the paper forms a dual innovation by constructing a full-chain supply chain network and integrating cutting-edge econometric methods, providing a three-dimensional research paradigm for policy effect evaluation. Addressing the limitations of traditional econometric models in endogeneity treatment, the paper constructs a composite identification framework of "multi-dimensional testing + machine learning" to verify the robustness of the baseline conclusions.

Tu Xiwei, Zhang Pingdan. "Energy Conservation Target Constraints and Supply Chain Carbon Emission Reduction". Economic Research, 2025, Issue 7. Relevant link: https://erj.ajcass.com/#/issue?id=121120&year=2025&issue=7&title=%E6%9C%80%E6%96%B0%E7%9B%AE%E5%BD%95

Author Profiles:

Zhang Pingdan is a Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at BNUBS. He obtained his Doctor of Management degree from the School of Management and Economics, Beijing Institute of Technology in 2004. His papers have been published in journals such as Management World, China Industrial Economics, World Economy, Economic Research and Environmental Science & Technology.

Tu Xiwei, the Institute of Industrial Economics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Edited by Sun Yue

Reviewed by Hu Conghui