「Porter 假說」主張設計良好的環境管制將產生創新抵銷效果，這項創新抵銷效果不僅能提升環境績效，也將抵銷廠商因環境管制產生的部份或全部額外成本，甚至提升廠商績效。本研究探討嚴格的環境管制是否透過創新活動的連結，而對廠商績效產生正向影響。研究以台灣較高污染性產業的廠商為研究對象，資料期間為1998年至2003年。研究有三個重點，第一，基於防治污染成本存在內生性問題，採用兩階段估計方法進行估計，在考量影響廠商防治污染成本決策係受到「正式」和「非正式」環境管制的影響下，選擇適當的環境管制指標建構防治污染成本模型。第二，考慮一般R&D支出和環境R&D為廠商的研發創新，估計環境管制對於廠商創新活動的影響。第三，估計廠商的研發創新對其總要素生產力的影響。研究顯示：環境管制確實透過創新活動對廠商績效產生正向且顯著的影響。

As Porter (1991,1995) described this relationship, if properly designed, environmental regulations can lead to ”innovation offsets” that will not only improve environmental performance, but will partially or more than fully offset the additional costs of regulations. The main purpose of this study is to examine whether the effect of environmental regulations on firm’s productivity due to the link between regulations and innovation. The combined data of the survey of Taiwan’s manufacturers collected by Ministry of Economic Affairs and the environmental protection expenditure survey collected by Environmental Protection Administration are adopted. This study focuses on high pollution-intensive industries. There are three parts in this study. First, a two-stage method is used for modifying the endogeneity of pollution abatement. The indicators of formal and informal regulations are used as instrument variables to model the pollution abatement cost function. Second, for studying the effect of regulations on innovation, the R&D expenditure and environmental R&D investment are as proxies of innovation. Third, the influence of innovation on Levinshon-Petrin total factor productivity is examined. It’s found that there is positive and significant relationship between pollution regulation and firm’s productivity. The empirical results support Porter hypothesis.