Environmental Performance and Regulation Effect of China’s Atmospheric Pollutant Emissions: Evidence from “Three Regions and Ten Urban Agglomerations”

The complex relationship between environmental regulation and green technology progress has always been a hot topic of research, especially in developing countries, where the impact of environmental regulation is important. Current research is mainly concerned with the impact of the single environmental regulation on technological progress and lacks study on the diversity of environmental regulations. The main purpose of this paper is to examine the heterogeneity of the effects of different types of environmental regulation on industrial green technology progress. As China’s scale of economy and pollution emissions are both large, and the government has also made great efforts in environmental regulation, this paper takes China as the example for analyses. We first use the EBM-GML method to measure the industrial green technology progress of 30 provinces in China from 2000 to 2018, and then apply the panel econometric model and threshold model to empirically investigate the influence of 3 types of environmental regulation. The results show that, first, the impacts of environmental regulation on industrial green technology progress are significantly different; specifically, command-based regulation has no direct significant impact, and autonomous regulation has played a positive role, and market-based regulation’s quadratic curve effect is significant, in which the cost-based and investment-based tool presents an inverted U-sharped and U-sharped, respectively. Second, there may be a weak alternative interaction among different types of environmental regulation. Third, a market-based regulatory tool has a threshold effect; with the upgrading of environmental regulation compliance, the effect of a cost-based tool is characterized by “promotion inhibition”, and that of an investment-based tool is “inhibition promotion”. Finally, the results of regional analysis are basically consistent with those of the national analysis. Based on the study, policy enlightenment is put forward to improve regional industrial green technology progress from the perspective of environmental regulation. This paper can provide a useful analytical framework for studying the relationship between environmental regulation and technological progress in a country, especially in developing countries.

Under the constraints of resources and environment,the encouragement to green technology innovation and the promotion of green industrial transformation by the design of environmental regulation is of great significance.However,the existing research ignores the different types of environmental regulation and also the ones in different regions.Therefore,it is difficult to put forward targeted and differentiated regulation policies and then to effectively promote green industrial transformation.Based on the distinction between different types of environmental regulation and between ones in different regions,this paper uses dynamic panel model to make a nonlinear effect test of environmental regulation on green industrial transformation.The research results show that the influences of different types of environmental regulation on green industrial transformation are featured by heterogeneity,and the nonlinear effect of command & control environment regulation does not exist.However,the enhancement of economic-incentive environmental regulation and voluntary-consciousness environmental regulation can significantly improve the level of green technology innovation and the promotion of green industrial transformation.In East China,the command & control environmental regulation has not yet formed effective incentives for green technology innovation and green industrial transformation,but the positively promotion effects of economic-incentive environmental regulation and voluntary-consciousness environment regulation are obvious.In West China and Central China,the command & control environment regulation has a negative effect,and the incentive effects of economic-incentive environmental regulation and voluntary-consciousness environmental regulation on green technology innovation and green industrial transformation are not obvious.Calculation of different types of environmental regulation is conducive to further expansion and subdivision of environmental regulation,in order to explore the synergistic effect of different types of environmental regulation.The research conclusions are of enlightenment significance to the scientific setting of environmental regulation intensity and the reasonable choice of environmental regulation modes in order to encourage green technology innovation and promote green industrial transformation.

The internal-structural effects of different types of environmental regulations on China's green total-factor productivity

Promoting high-quality economic development with high-level ecological protection is one of the most important tasks in China’s new stage of development. The improvement of enterprise performance is the micro-foundation of high-quality economic development, while environmental regulations aim to reduce the negative effect of economic development on the environment. Consequently, the microeconomic effects of environmental regulation have received widespread attention in academia. Previous studies have emphasized the effect of environmental regulations on firm performance but have not reached a consensus and lack of insight on the combined effects of different types of environmental regulation. This study aims to fill this gap by considering the heterogeneity of environmental regulations and the effect of the interaction between heterogeneous environmental regulations on enterprise performance. To reveal the relationship between the different types of environmental regulations and the performance of manufacturing enterprises, and the possible impact mechanism, this study uses the fixed effect model to test the impact of different environmental regulations on the performance of manufacturing enterprises, the mediation effect model is used to check whether or not an environmental regulation affects the performance of manufacturing enterprises by improving the level of technological innovation of enterprises, and the moderating effect model is used to examine the impact of the interaction between different environmental regulations on the performance of manufacturing enterprises. The results show that command-and-control environmental regulation inhibits the performance improvement of manufacturing enterprises, while a market-based environmental regulation enhances performance by improving the technological innovation level of enterprises. Market-based environmental regulation will alleviate the disincentive effect of command-control environmental regulation on the performance of manufacturing enterprise.

Haze pollution in China is very serious and has become the source of mortality, affecting the health and lives of residents. The Chinese government adopts different policy measures to reduce haze pollution. The impact of different types of environmental regulations on haze pollution has become a hot topic for academics and government departments. Based on panel data from 2005–2017, this paper studies the effect of different types of environmental regulations on haze pollution in 30 provinces of China using a panel quantile model. The results show that when haze pollution changes from a low quantile to a high quantile, the marginal impact of command-and-control environmental regulation on haze pollution changes from 0.122 to -0.332. Command-and-control environmental regulation can reduce haze pollution, but its impact is not significant. The main reason for this finding is that environmental law enforcement is not strict. The marginal impact of economically restrained environmental regulation on haze pollution changes from -14.389 to 49.939. Economically restrained environmental regulation can reduce haze pollution in low quantiles, but not in high quantiles. The collection of sewage charges fees is far less than the total profit, which has no deterrent effect on enterprises. The marginal impact of public participation in environmental regulation on haze pollution changes from 0.154 to -0.002. Public participation in environmental regulation cannot reduce haze pollution in low quantiles, but can in high quantiles; however its impact becomes insignificant. This study reveals the quantile-based discrepancy in the effect of environmental regulation on haze pollution, and offers a new perspective for research on the effects of environmental regulation.

Haze pollution in China is very serious and has become the source of mortality, affecting the health and lives of residents. The Chinese government adopts different policy measures to reduce haze pollution. The impact of different types of environmental regulations on haze pollution has become a hot topic for academics and government departments. Based on panel data from 2005-2017, this paper studies the effect of different types of environmental regulations on haze pollution in 30 provinces of China using a panel quantile model. The results show that when haze pollution changes from a low quantile to a high quantile, the marginal impact of command-and-control environmental regulation on haze pollution changes from 0.122 to -0.332. Command-and-control environmental regulation can reduce haze pollution, but its impact is not significant. The main reason for this finding is that environmental law enforcement is not strict. The marginal impact of economically restrained environmental regulation on haze pollution changes from -14.389 to 49.939. Economically restrained environmental regulation can reduce haze pollution in low quantiles, but not in high quantiles. The collection of sewage charges fees is far less than the total profit, which has no deterrent effect on enterprises. The marginal impact of public participation in environmental regulation on haze pollution changes from 0.154 to -0.002. Public participation in environmental regulation cannot reduce haze pollution in low quantiles, but can in high quantiles; however its impact becomes insignificant. This study reveals the quantile-based discrepancy in the effect of environmental regulation on haze pollution, and offers a new perspective for research on the effects of environmental regulation.

As an important means to promote regional low-carbon development, environmental regulation has great theoretical and practical significance for achieving the goal of carbon-neutral development in China. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces and cities in China from 2005 to 2019, this paper first uses the intermediary effect model to analyze the impact of the implementation of environmental regulation policies on regional carbon emissions, discusses the relationship between environmental regulation, green technology innovation and carbon emissions, and further uses the threshold effect model to discuss the nonlinear relationship between environmental regulation and regional carbon emissions. The results show that: the improvement of formal and informal environmental regulation can play a role in “forced emission reduction”; Green technology innovation plays a complete intermediary role in the impact of environmental regulation on regional carbon emissions; At the same time, the impact of formal and informal environmental regulation on regional carbon emissions has a threshold effect. Among them, formal environmental regulation has a double threshold effect, the threshold values are 0.429 and 0.502 respectively, while informal environmental regulation has a single threshold effect, the threshold value is 1.803. The results of heterogeneity analysis show that there are obvious differences in the implementation effects of environmental regulation policies under different economic development levels and industrialization development stages. Therefore, we should pay attention to the mutual promotion effect of different types of environmental regulation, strengthen the collaborative emission reduction of environmental regulation and green technology innovation, and improve the level of regional green technology innovation, so as to better promote the realization of regional carbon neutrality goals.

CO2 emissions from the power sector are the main source of CO2 emissions in China， and environmental regulation plays an irreplaceable role as a basic constraint for reducing carbon emissions. Based on China's provincial panel data from 2003-2019， this study analyzes the spatio-temporal characteristics of different types of environmental regulatory intensity and CO2 emissions from the power sector by using kernel density estimation and standard deviation ellipses. Then， the geographically and temporally weighted regression model is constructed to explore the impacts of command-based， market-based， and voluntary environmental regulations on CO2 emissions in the power industry. The results showed the following： ① For different types of environmental regulation： in time， the market-based environmental regulation kernel density curves showed a "rightward" motion， with interregional differences expanding， while command-based and voluntary environmental regulation showed a shrinking interregional difference； in space， command-based environmental regulation gradually followed a northwest-southeast spatial distribution pattern. Market-based and voluntary environmental regulation all showed a northeast-southwest spatial distribution pattern. ② For CO2 emissions from the power sector： in time， kernel density curves showed a "rightward" motion， with inter-regional differences expanding； in space， there was a gradual pattern of northwest-southeast spatial distribution pattern， and the center of gravity was moving to the northwest. ③ The impact of different types of environmental regulations on CO2 emissions in the power sector had obvious spatial and temporal heterogeneity. In time， the regression coefficient of command-based environmental regulation in most provinces （cities， autonomous regions） had an increasing and subsequently declining trend， while market-based and voluntary environmental regulation decreased first and then increased. In space， spatial heterogeneity in the role of the three types of environmental regulation was evident； command-based environmental regulation gradually had a greater impact on the northern provinces （facilitation）， market-based environmental regulation had a greater impact on the central-eastern provinces （facilitation）， and voluntary environmental regulation had a greater impact on the eastern provinces （disincentive）.

Starting from the basic problem of the impact of environmental regulations(ER) on carbon emissions(CE), this paper uses the provincial panel data from 2006 to 2016 to analyze the path and effect of ER on CE. First, we divide ER into direct environmental regulation tools(DER) and economic environmental regulation tools(EER), and empirically test the impact of different types of ER tools on CE. Then, we empirically examine the industrial structure effect, economic development effect and technological innovation effect of different types of ER on CE. The results show that ER not only has a direct effect on CE, but also indirectly affects CE through three paths: industrial structure, economic development and technological innovation. There is a negative correlation between ER and CE, and the CE reduction effect of DER is higher than that of EER. The industrial structure effects of DER and EER are negatively correlated with CE, but the economic development effects and technological innovation effects of the two ER tools are positively correlated with CE.

Research on the impact mechanism of multiple environmental regulations on carbon emissions under the perspective of carbon peaking pressure: A case study of China's coastal regions

Previous research on green innovation sought to comprehend the antecedents and outcomes of environmental regulations. However, how these antecedents translate into outcomes may vary depending on different types of environmental regulations, such as environmental subsidies and pollution charges. We propose and test the effects of different environmental regulations on enterprises’ green innovation preferences. Moreover, we analyze how ownership type moderates the observed effects. The fundamental results reveal that: (1) Environmental subsidies and pollution charges positively affect energy conservation innovation. (2) Environmental subsidies and pollution charges positively affect emission reduction innovation. (3) Pollution charges are not as effective as environmental subsidies in promoting energy conservation innovation. However, pollution charges have a greater implementation effect than environmental subsidies in encouraging emission reduction innovation. (4) The types of enterprise ownership only play a positive moderating role in the relationship between pollution charges and emission reduction innovation. Accordingly, this paper provides auxiliary decision-making for the government to motivate the energy conservation and emission reduction of enterprises.

BackgroundIn the stage of sustainable development, enterprises should not only focus on economic efficiency, but also on ecological protection, for which the governments of various countries has adopted various environmental regulation methods to promote green investment by enterprises. However, there are many types of environmental regulations, and the relationship between policy formulation and implementation effects is complicated. Heavily polluting enterprises as the main carrier of resource consumption and pollutant emissions is the main target of environmental regulation. Based on this, we took China's heavily polluting listed companies as examples to explore the impact of different types of environmental regulations on green investment in heavily polluting enterprises.ResultsIn this paper, environmental regulations were divided into formal and informal types, of which formal environmental regulations (FER) were subdivided into command-control and market-incentive types. The empirical results showed that the relationship between command-control environmental regulations and green investment by heavily polluting enterprises presents an inverted “U” shape, and market-incentive environmental regulations first have no effect on and then promote green investment by heavily polluting enterprises. Besides, informal environmental regulations (IER) have maintained a positive effect on green investment by heavily polluting enterprises.ConclusionsHeavily polluting enterprises, respectively, employ passive, active and voluntary green investment strategies under the three types of environmental regulations, providing a reference for the government to promote green investment by enterprises by environmental regulations more effectively.

The effects of three types of environmental regulation on eco-efficiency: A cross-region analysis in China

There are few studies analysing whether different types of environmental regulation have differential impacts on the efficiency of the construction industry. Using 2012–2016 panel data from 30 provinces in China, the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of the construction industry is measured with a global Malmquist–Luenberger productivity index based on the epsilon measure model. Thereafter, a panel tobit regression model is proposed to explore the relationship between three types of environmental regulation and the GTFP of the construction industry. The results show that (a) from 2012 to 2016, the GTFP of the Chinese construction industry grew slowly at an average annual rate of 0.14%; (b) both one-phase lagged command-and-control and current phase market-based environmental regulation had a positive linear relationship with GTFP, while one-phase lagged voluntary environmental regulation, on the other hand, had an inverted U-shaped relationship with GTFP; (c) the three types of environmental regulation can be combined to establish a suitable environmental regulation system. The findings of this study provide guidance for the sustainable development of the construction industry by combining the actions of different types of environmental regulation.

This article explores the impact mechanism of different types of environmental regulations on corporate green technology innovation (GTI). The research focuses on analyzing three types of environmental regulations: command based environmental regulation (ER1), market-oriented environmental regulation (ER2), and voluntary environmental regulation (ER3), and how they affect corporate GTI. This study selected enterprise GTI as the dependent variable and measured it by the number of applications for green invention patents and green utility model patents. The independent variables are the three types of environmental regulations mentioned above. According to data from Chinese A-share listed companies. Using benchmark regression models to analyze the impact of different environmental regulations on GTI, and constructing a moderating effect model to study the role of corporate R&D investment and government support in the process of environmental regulations affecting GTI. The results indicate that (1) ER1, ER2, and ER3 can all promote enterprise GTI, and the three environmental regulatory methods have a better synergistic effect. (2) R&D investment has a positive correlation with the relationship between ER2 and GTI, and a negative correlation with ER 3 and ER 1. (3) There are differences in the GTI performance of enterprises in different regions, ownership nature, factor density, and industry types under the influence of environmental regulations. (4) The impact of environmental regulatory policies on corporate GTI is mainly short-term. This study provides a new perspective on how environmental regulations affect corporate GTI, especially in the context of developing countries like China. The research findings emphasize the role of different types of environmental regulations in incentivizing corporate GTI, while also pointing out factors that governments need to consider when formulating environmental policies, such as regional differences and corporate characteristics, which are of great significance for promoting green development of enterprises and achieving broader sustainable development goals.