This study constructs of a quasinatural experiment based on the carbon emissions trading system (ETS), using data from Chinese listed companies from 20102016.We explore the impact of ETS on the level of corporate carbon emissions through a differenceindifferences (DID) model.The benchmark results show that ETS promotes corporate carbon emission reduction, and this conclusion still holds after a series of robust analyses.The mechanism test shows that ETS improves the innovation level and environmental awareness of firms, and promotes their carbon emission reduction actions.Further analysis also reveals that ETS is more effective in the sample of nonstate enterprises, and has a spillover effect on the whole industry in the pilot region, which can play a role in promoting economic growth.In this regard, the government could provide more financial assistance to nonstate enterprises so that they have stronger motivation and better capabilities to respond to the call for emission reduction and accelerate their lowcarbon mode transformation.The pilot policy can be extended to more regions and form green lowcarbon industrial chains.

carbon emissions trading; corporate carbon emission reduction; Differenceindifferences method; Differenceindifferenceindifferences method2