AI Adoption and the Carbon Rebound Effect: Micro-level Evidence from Chinese Industrial Firms

Title
Replication Data for "AI Adoption and the Carbon Rebound Effect: Micro-level Evidence from Chinese Industrial Firms"

Authors
Ying Gang - College of Economics and Management, Inner Mongolia University
Hai Meihong - University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
DOI / Persistent Identifier
https://data.mendeley.com/drafts/7c8vmd

Overview
This dataset supports the empirical analysis in the paper titled "AI Adoption and the Carbon Rebound Effect: Micro-level Evidence from Chinese Industrial Firms," published in Energy Policy. The dataset enables replication of all regression results, robustness checks, and supplementary analyses presented in the manuscript.

The study examines whether and how artificial intelligence (AI) adoption affects firm-level carbon emissions, using a panel of Chinese A-share listed industrial firms from 2010–2022. The identification strategy exploits the staggered timing of first AI patent grants as a quasi-natural experiment.

Data Files
File Name Description Format
data.dta Main dataset for replication analysis Stata (.dta)
企业do.do Stata replication script .do file
Dataset Structure
Sample Information
Observations: 29,008 firm-year observations
Variables: 190 variables
Time Period: 2010–2022
Sample: Chinese A-share listed industrial firms (Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges)
Variable Categories
Category Key Variables
Dependent Variables co2 (carbon emissions), eng (energy consumption), lneng (log energy consumption)
Core Independent Variables AI adoption intensity, ai投资 (AI investment), aipat1-4 (AI patent indicators), diddai (difference-in-differences indicator)
Firm Characteristics size (firm size), lev (leverage), roa, roe (profitability), tobinq (Tobin's Q), cashflow, growth
Corporate Governance soe (state-owned enterprise dummy), top1/top10 (ownership concentration), dual (duality), board (board size)
Green Investment 绿色投资环保投资1-4 (green investment measures), Green_Inv (total green investment), Ges_dum (green investment dummy)
Industry/Regional Controls ind (industry codes), province (province), city (city), hightech (high-tech dummy)
Instrumental Variables iv1, China/US industrial robot penetration rates (中国工业机器人渗透率_*)
Carbon Policy Variables price (carbon price), ER (environmental regulation), carbon_incentive (carbon market indicators)
Data Sources
Data Type Source Notes
Firm Financial Data CSMAR (China Stock Market and Accounting Research Database) Listed company financial statements, corporate governance data
AI Patent Data CNIPA (China National Intellectual Property Administration) AI-related invention patents granted to sample firms
Environmental Data China Environmental Statistics Yearbook Industry-level pollution and emission data
Industrial Robot Data IFR (International Federation of Robotics) China and US industrial robot installation and stock data
Carbon Market Data China Carbon Exchange Regional carbon trading market prices
Methodology Summary