Do people have a negative impression of government on polluted days? Evidence from Chinese Cities

Abstract

Chinese governments play a key role in providing environmental public goods. Urban air quality is a significant indicator with which people evaluate the effects of governments’ environmental regulations and investments. This study aims to investigate how people's impression of government varies with air pollution in Chinese cities. Using the Baidu online search index on the specific keyword ‘corruption’ to represent public attitude toward the government, our estimations show that an increase in air pollution level yields a significant increase in online searches on this word. Such an effect is more significant on heavily polluted or severely polluted days. In further estimations, we find that people will not pay more attention to the polluters themselves on polluted days. These results are consistent with previous studies that air pollution causes people to be more depressed, selfish and sensitive to fairness. We conclude that efforts on air quality improvement will create a positive impression of government.