Heterogeneous environmental policy tools for expressway construction projects: A crossregional analysis in China

Abstract

Expressway construction often poses substantial environmental problems, requiring governments to introduce effective environmental policies that leverage a rich portfolio of environmental policy tools. Taking China as a case study, this study examines the environmental policy tools used in constructing expressways and policy implementation considering regional economic development levels. Within the scope of publicly available information, 355 environmental policy texts related to expressway construction were collected as a sample for the study. This paper classifies environmental policies into command-and-control, market-based, and public participation policies, constructing a model to measure environmental policy intensity, and exploring the impact of economic development on environmental policies. The research results reveal four notable findings. (1) Command-and-control environmental policies dominate the three types of environmental policies. (2) Local governments clearly prefer command-and-control environmental policy tools, resulting in the overuse of specific policy tools and an imbalanced policy system. (3) Economic development can cause local governments to endorse more environmental policies, but the structure of policy tools does not change. (4) Economic growth is not a significant driver of market-based environmental policies. This study quantifies environmental policy intensity in China, revealing the impact of economic development on environmental policy, and providing practical operational guidance for policymakers.