How the environmental credit evaluation system affects corporate pollution emissions: Evidence from China.

The environmental credit evaluation system (ECES), which integrates control, market, and contractual elements as a novel comprehensive environmental regulation tool, has been piloted in China since the late 1990s. The effectiveness of this system in improving environmental conditions and the mechanisms through which it operates have attracted significant attention. This study utilizes the pilot implementation of the ECES as a quasi-natural experiment, integrating data from Chinese industrial firms and pollution statistics from 2003 to 2014.