Does the new environmental protection law hinder the development of new quality productive forces in industrial enterprises? A quasi-natural experiment in China

New Quality Productive Forces (NQPF) refers to a modern form of productivity driven by factors such as informatization, digitalization, and technological advancements. With the implementation of global environmental regulations, such as the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, Chinese enterprises face an urgent need to transition from traditional production to net-zero product-focused factories. However, the influence of environmental regulations on the development of NQPF within enterprises remains a largely unexplored area. This paper takes A-share listed industrial enterprises in China from 2010 to 2022 as the research object, takes the implementation of the New Environmental Protection Law (NEPL) in 2015 as a quasi-natural experimental scenario, constructs a comprehensive evaluation index system of enterprises' NQPF from the perspective of factor input and output efficiency, and constructs a difference-in-differences model to examine the impact of commanded environmental regulation on the development of enterprises' NQPF. The results show that: 1) The implementation of the NEPL significantly reduces both the factor input and output efficiency of NQPF in heavily polluting enterprises, with a more pronounced effect on input than output. 2) Sub-index analysis reveals that the law significantly inhibits new labor, labor tools, labor objects, technological innovation, and industrial transformation in heavily polluting enterprises, although it has a markedly positive effect on the allocation of production factors. 3) Mechanism analysis suggests that the NEPL suppresses the input and output of NQPF in heavily polluting enterprises through cost, risk, and supervisory effects. The findings of this study offer empirical evidence to inform the design of environmental policies and ecological rule-of-law frameworks guiding the development of enterprises' NQPF.