The impact of environmental accountability on air pollution: A public attention perspective

Abstract

Public attention to environment is an important form of environmental accountability, and is conducive to assisting the government in strengthening the control of air pollution. By using 7 types of daily air pollution data from 321 cities in China from December 1, 2013 to December 31, 2018, and merging with Baidu Index data, we studied the causal relationship between public attention and air pollution. The results show that public attention could reduce air pollution. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the suppression effect of public attention on air pollution is stronger in large, first-tier, and ministerial cites and cities with severe air pollution. Mechanism analysis shows that public attention could reduce air pollution through “complaint to the government” and “concern about health”. Dynamic analysis shows that public attention is gradually increasing in restraining air pollution. This paper not only provide policy reference for the efficient control of air pollution in China and other developing countries, but also provide important insights for developed countries.