Abstract
Chinese society's unique characteristics present challenges with regards to discovering new ways to tackle tremendous environmental problems. This paper examines the effect of provincial social capital on environmental performance in China. In the first stage of the analysis, we measured the environmental performance levels of the 2011-2017 panel data of 30 provinces in China. We did this using data envelopment analysis. After introducing the concept of social capital, we innovatively built the social capital index system based on China’s national conditions and measured social capital data from three perspectives. Then we used the Probit regression model to explore the effect of social capital on environmental performance. The results show that the environmental performance of the well-known and better developed regions of China (such as Beijing, Shanghai, etc.) is significantly higher than other regions. Social capital and environmental performance are related in general. However, the effect of social capital on environmental performance is heterogeneous in different regions. They are more consistent in the eastern and southwest regions while are less stable in other regions. Among the three types of social capital, structural capital has the most obvious benefits for environmental performance. This is followed by relational capital and innovative capital. Furthermore, it has been found that the proportion of the tertiary industry in GDP and the level of social trust are the largest indicators of the rates at which structural capital and relational capital contribute respectively to environmental performance.
Highlights
China is currently facing tremendous environmental pressures (Liao, 2018; Hang et al, 2019; Zhang et al, 2019a)
According to the index system elaborated in section Methodology and Data, we collected and pre-organized the data before calculating the environmental performance level (EPL) of each province in 2011–2017 according to the slack-based measure (SBM) model
Our analysis suggests that the reason for this is related to Zhejiang Province’s introduction of tough environmental regulations in early 2014
Summary
China is currently facing tremendous environmental pressures (Liao, 2018; Hang et al, 2019; Zhang et al, 2019a). The government has tackled these in various ways, such as by promoting the use of clean energy and introducing tough policies (Zhang et al, 2019c), and have achieved good results (Zhang and Li, 2018; Zhang et al, 2019b) These methods often overlook Chinese society’s specific characteristics and pose their own challenges. The trends of social space segmentation and structural solidification make protecting the environment difficult For this reason, we start from the perspective of social capital to try and find new ways to solve environmental governance. Social capital can be understood as an association between individuals or groups It refers to the social networks, reciprocal norms, and resulting trust that people get from their positions in the social structure. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: section Methodology and Data describes the methodology and data, section Results and Discussion presents the results, and the final section offers a summary and a conclusion
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