Environmental regulation: An enhancing or burden for social welfare and public health?

Abstract

Public health has been associated with environmental pollution and regulations. With the increasing awareness of environmental protection, the real effects of environmental regulations and mechanisms on public health remain uncertain. We develop a theoretical model of individual utility and investigate how environmental regulations affect public health from a social welfare perspective. By using the panel data from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) in 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019, we find that environmental regulations positively influence public health. This positive effect is attributable to a boost in employment and an improvement in individual happiness. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis reveals that environmental regulations are more likely to affect groups with low education, middle-aged, living in eastern China and rural areas. These results provide a comprehensive understanding of the heterogeneous effects of environmental regulation on health and offer a new perspective for policy-makers to balance social welfare with environmentally sustainable development.