Abstract
Based on the panel data of 216 prefecture-level cities in China from 2003 to 2016, this study selected five emission-reduction indicators (industrial SO2 removal rate, soot removal rate, comprehensive utilization rate of industrial solid waste, domestic sewage treatment rate, and harmless treatment of domestic waste rate) to quantify the intensity of urban environmental regulations. Based on the intensity of environmental regulations, the authors further studied the impact of environmental regulations on economic quality (green total factor productivity) and environmental quality (PM2.5). The test results showed that the impact of environmental regulation on PM2.5 is a U-type change that first declines and then rises, while the impact of the implementation of environmental regulation on green total factor productivity is an inverted U-shaped change, which first increases and then decreases. On the one hand, appropriate environmental regulations are conducive to improving environmental quality and improving urban green total factor productivity. On the other hand, excessive environmental regulations have not only failed to improve environmental quality, but also have a negative impact on the improvement of economic quality. In addition, there are regional differences in the impact of environmental regulations, so it is necessary to formulate appropriate and local environmental regulatory policies.
Highlights
For sake of testing whether these two nonlinearities were driven by regional differences, this paper introduced the quadratic term of environmental regulation (GEV2) from the regional level to assess the nonlinear influence of environmental regulation on PM2.5 and green total factor productivity
The authors assessed the impact of environmental regulations on economic quality and environmental quality (PM2.5) by observing the intensity of environmental regulations
The empirical results led us to the conclusions listed below: (1) Considering resource consumption and pollution emissions, China’s green total factor productivity is still increasing, and there is no situation in which the economic quality is improved at the expense of resources and the environment
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This paper analyzes the impact of environmental regulations on economy and environment in different regions, combined with the differences of geographical location and economic development level of coastal and inland cities, and provides policy guidance according to local conditions. Reasonable answers to the above two questions will help to improve the relevant literature research on environmental regulations, and play a positive role in guiding the Chinese government to make rational use of environmental-regulation policies to promote the high-quality development of local economies and environmental improvement, which promotes the sustainable development of society to a certain extent, and has important theoretical and practical significance for the economic transformation of Chinese society
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