Abstract: Based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2000 to 2018, this paper uses the fixed effect model to test the Porter hypothesis that green tax can promote the upgrading of industrial structure, and considers its spatial heterogeneity in the eastern, central and western regions. The test results show that: both narrow and broad sense of green tax are not conducive to the upgrading of industrial structure in the short term; narrow sense of green tax has a lag effect on the upgrading of industrial structure, and broad sense of green tax has a significant positive effect on the upgrading of industrial structure; green tax has different effects on the upgrading of industrial structure in different regions; there is a U-shaped nonlinear relationship between green tax and industrial structure upgrading.

Key words: green tax, industrial structure upgrading, innovation