Abstract
This paper evaluates the real effects of environmental justice reform on environmental governance at the firm level. Using the establishment of environmental courts in China as a quasi-natural experiment, our difference-in-differences estimation shows that: (1) environmental courts significantly enhance environmental investment by firms, and this relationship is robust to different specifications and alternative measures; (2) three possible channels are the improved levels of justice and enforcement of environmental protection, and the mitigation of local government intervention; (3) our findings are particularly pronounced in subsamples with severe local protectionism, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and non-SOEs with political connections; (4) at the city-level, environmental courts significantly increase air quality and promote cities to cross the inflection point of the environmental Kuznets curve earlier. Overall, this paper reveals the micro-mechanisms behind the real effects of environmental justice on firm environmental investment, thus providing timely implications for regulators concerned with environmental protection.
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