Special economic zones upgrading and carbon emission reduction firm level data

In calculating the carbon emissions of listed companies, we use fossil energy consumption, electricity consumption, and heat consumption manually collected from the corporate social responsibility reports (CSR reports), sustainable development reports, and environmental reports disclosed annually by 3,352 listed Chinese companies from 2003 to 2021. We have manually sorted out the list and time of the upgrading of SEZs in 272 cities. The relevant information about the upgrading of SEZs comes from the China Development Zone Audit Announcement (2006 edition) released by the NDRC and other departments . This set of data records the details of state- and provincial-level SEZs that have been officially recognized after a large-scale rectification in 2003, including the names, types, and approval authorities of SEZs. The financial information of the listed companies involved in the control variables is all from the China Stock Market & Accounting Research Database (CSMAR Database).