Environmental Regulation Intensity Research Articles

Impact of environmental information disclosure on environmental regulation intensity: evidence from 113 cities in China

Presently, the driving factors for environmental regulatory intensity, especially environmental information disclosure, remain unclear. Exploring the causal relationship between the two has an important guiding value for governments to achieve sustainable development. This research empirically examines the impact of environmental information disclosure on environmental regulatory intensity, and the possible action mechanisms and boundary conditions based on panel data of 113 Chinese cities from 2010 to 2020 using fixed-effects model, quantile regression model, moderating effect model, and spatial econometric models. The conclusions suggest that, first, a 1% increase in environmental information disclosure promotes a positive increase in environmental regulatory intensity of about 0.171%. Second, The regression coefficients of environmental information disclosure in the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th quartiles are 0.489, 0.401, 0.443, 0.365 and 0.281 respectively, showing a decreasing trend. Third, transportation infrastructure and the resident’s education level exhibit positive interactions, with interaction term regression coefficients of 0.006 and 0.070, respectively; foreign direct investment exhibits a negative interaction, with coefficient of -0.029. Fourth, both environmental regulation intensity and environmental information disclosure show positive spatial correlations, with a 1% increase in environmental regulation intensity and environmental information disclosure in neighboring cities causing an increase in environmental regulation intensity of about 0.734% and 0.026% in this city. This research demonstrates the positive effects of adopting environmental information disclosure on the realization of sustainable development and provides empirical evidence for government policy formulation.

Venture Capital, Environmental Regulation and Regional Green Innovation: Evidence from China

Venture capital can promote green innovation by providing financial support for green innovation activities. Based on panel data from 30 provincial-level administrative regions in China, this research analyzes the impact of venture capital on green innovation and its underlying mechanisms. The results show that venture capital significantly promotes regional green innovation. Through the mediation analysis, it is found that venture capital primarily promote green innovation by increasing R&D investment and improving the level of research team level. The increase in R&D investment is the main pathway through which venture capital influences the level of green innovation, as firms receiving venture capital are more willing to allocate these funds towards green innovation activities. The study also finds that the impact of venture capital on green innovation is influenced by environmental regulation, with an upper limit to the intensity of environmental regulation. Environmental regulation below this limit value amplifies the positive effect of venture capital on green innovation, while regulation exceeding this threshold reduces the effect of venture capital on green innovation. The article confirms the important role of venture capital in promoting green innovation, enriches the research on the innovation effects of venture capital, and provides theoretical references for green development.

Do policies make a difference? Assessing the impact of China's air pollution prevention and control action plan on carbon emissions

This study aims to balance the dual objectives of improving environmental quality and achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. Utilizing panel data from 274 Chinese cities between 2006 and 2020, this paper employs the difference-in-differences method to examine the impact of the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (APPCAP) on urban carbon emissions. Empirical results indicate that the impact of the APPCAP on regional carbon emissions follows an inverted U-shaped curve, exhibiting a dual impact path. Although the implementation of the APPCAP increased the annual carbon emissions of the city by an average of 1.637 million tons, it showed a trend of inhibiting the growth of carbon emissions, although it was not significant. Specifically, the APPCAP is most effective in reducing carbon emissions during the "source prevention" stage, primarily by increasing industrial electricity consumption and reducing coal production and consumption. However, a rebound effect occurs at the policy period's end, with compensatory increases in crude oil and electricity consumption, thereby elevating regional carbon emission levels. The APPCAP's effect on carbon emissions is more pronounced in areas with lower population density and higher environmental regulation intensity. It notably raises carbon emission levels in non-industrial base and non-resource-based cities compared to other cities. Furthermore, the APPCAP positively impacts regional carbon emission intensity and economic growth, significantly driving the secondary industry while minimally affecting the primary industry.

The Levels of Government Environmental Attention and Enterprises’ Green Technological Innovation

This study utilizes data from listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2010 to 2023 and employs text analysis methods to investigate the impact of government environmental concerns on corporate green technology innovation and its underlying impact mechanisms. The empirical findings demonstrate that heightened government environmental concerns significantly foster corporate green technology innovation. This relationship remains robust across a series of sensitivity analyses. The impact mechanism analysis reveals that increased government environmental concern leads to a heightened intensity of environmental regulation, drives the intelligent transformation of enterprises, and enhances the implementation of corporate environmental strategies, collectively contributing to the improvement of corporate green technology innovation capabilities. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis indicates that the effect of government environmental concerns is more pronounced in state-owned enterprises, mature enterprises, and industries with lower pollution levels. This study underscores that the government’s intensified focus on environmental issues can effectively promote corporate green technology innovation, thereby promoting sustainable economic and social development and supporting the dual goals of environmental protection and economic growth.

Evaluating the Impact of Chinese FDI in the Energy Sector on Green GDP Growth: A Spatial Econometric Analysis of MENA Countries

This study analyzes the impact of Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in the energy sector on the green GDP (GGDP) growth of seven Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries based on data from 2009 to 2019. Using panel regression analysis, the study focuses on the effects of FDI, economic development level, population size, energy consumption structure, environmental regulation intensity, government fiscal expenditure, and the KOF Economic Globalization Index on GGDP growth. By comparing fixed-effects and random-effects models and applying the Hausman test to select the most appropriate model, the research indicates that the random-effects model is the most suitable. The results show that FDI, economic development level, and population size have significant positive effects on GGDP, while shifts in energy consumption structure also promote sustainable economic growth. In contrast, environmental regulation intensity and the globalization index have no significant impact on GGDP, suggesting that GGDP growth in MENA countries relies more on internal economic policies and the efficiency of resource allocation.

Impact of green finance on hydropower investments: A perspective of environmental law

With growing global environmental concerns and the commitment to sustainable development and stricter environmental laws, green finance has emerged as an important means of supporting renewable energy projects. Using data from Chinese provinces from 2015 to 2021 as the research sample, this study, through the lens of environmental law, explores the relationship between green finance, environmental regulation intensity, and hydropower investment. Results show that green finance is positively correlated with hydropower investment, and environmental regulation intensity positively moderates this relationship. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the impact of green finance on hydropower investment is more pronounced in regions with higher education levels.

Can Digital Transformation Drive Green Innovation in China’s Construction Industry under a Dual-Carbon Vision?

Against the backdrop of increasing global environmental pollution and energy consumption, green innovation is necessary to achieve green transformation. As an industry with a huge demand for resources and energy consumption, the construction industry shoulders the mission of the times to promote green innovation to enhance the ability of sustainable development. Digital technology provides new opportunities for green innovation in the construction industry. However, the impacts and mechanisms of digital transformation driving green innovation have not been thoroughly studied. In this paper, 121 listed companies in China’s construction industry are selected as a sample from 2011 to 2021, and a total of 1331 annual observations are obtained, and the impact and mechanism of digital transformation on construction enterprises’ green innovation are empirically analyzed by establishing regression models. The study indicates that digital transformation can facilitate green innovation in construction companies by enhancing corporate risk-taking and improving corporate governance. Compared with non-state-owned enterprises, state-owned enterprises have more endogenous incentives for green transformation based on multiple pressures, which to some extent weakens the driving role of digital transformation. The driving effect of enterprises’ digital transformation is more significant when the intensity of regional environmental regulation is high. This paper examines how the digitization of construction enterprises can lead to new greening ideas from the perspective of green innovation. It provides an important theoretical basis and decision-making reference to support the construction industry in its digital transformation and realize the goal of “dual carbon”.

The impact of the digital economy on carbon emission intensity from the environmental regulation perspective

ABSTRACT This study examines the nonlinear relationship between the digital economy and carbon emission intensity using Panel Smooth Transition Regression (PSTR) based on data from cities between 2010 and 2019. As environmental regulation intensity increases, the positive impact of the digital economy on carbon emission intensity gradually diminishes. This study offers a novel perspective on the interplay between the digital economy and carbon emission intensity within the context of environmental regulation.

Environmental Regulation, Factor Marketisation Allocation and Carbon Emissions Performance: Empirical Evidence from Resource-Based Cities in China

Resource-based cities had an irreplaceable role in the process of the economic miracle in China. Advancing such cities’ carbon emissions reduction is a crucial aspect of the country’s steady realisation of the dual carbon peak and neutrality strategy. The reasonable implementation of environmental regulation and the efficiency of factor marketisation allocation are the key links for resource-based cities to improve carbon emissions performance, break the resource curse and reduce carbon emissions. Based on this, this study centres on the driving relationship between environmental regulation, the efficiency of factor marketisation allocation and carbon emissions performance as the core research problem. This study takes the panel data of 116 resource-based cities in China from 2006 to 2020 as the research sample; the non-radial meta-frontier total factor carbon emissions performance index is selected as the measurement index of carbon emission performance of resource-based cities based on the applicability analysis of the model. This study explores the characteristics of regional heterogeneity and type heterogeneity of carbon emissions performance driven by environmental regulation under the moderating effect of the efficiency of factor marketisation allocation and further explores the threshold effect, aiming to clarify the driving relationship between the three. The findings reveal that the driving effect of environmental regulation intensity on carbon emissions performance exhibits a fluctuating upward trend, the effect transformed by compliance cost and innovation compensation. The efficiency of factor marketisation allocation has a double threshold superposition effect on carbon emissions performance fluctuation that is driven by environmental regulation, indicating that market and government effectiveness can operate together to improve the carbon emissions performance. Based on these results, this study proposes countermeasures and suggestions for improving carbon emissions performance using environmental regulation and the efficiency of factor marketisation allocation.

Do government environmental target constraints break the political resource curse? --A study on political connections and firm green innovation

This study combines government environmental target data (2003–2015) with green innovation among listed firms of China. After investigating the relationship between political connections and firm green innovation, we focus on whether government environmental target constraints can break the political resource curse and enhance green innovation. The findings suggest the existence of a political resource curse in firm green innovation. However, government environmental target constraints effectively mitigate this curse, increasing the quantity of green innovation in firms with political connections but at the expense of a decline in quality of green innovation. We further conduct a robustness analysis using data from 2003 to 2021, and the research findings remain consistent. Mechanism analysis indicates that government environmental target constraints effectively boost the quantity of green innovation in politically connected firms by reducing rent-seeking costs and increasing R&D subsidies. Simultaneously, government environmental target constraints amplify financial constraints, subsequently squeezing high-quality inputs for green innovation and resulting in a decline in quality. Furthermore, the intensity of government environmental regulation influences the relationship between political connections and green innovation in a non-linear way. When the intensity of government environmental regulation is high, it motivates politically connected firms to increase the quantity of green innovation but at the cost of reduced quality. Heterogeneity analysis also reveals diverse impacts of government environmental target constraints on green innovation in firms with political connections, considering factors such as levels and types of political connections, green innovation, social attention, industries, regional economic growth pressure, and market conditions.

Fall into the pseudo-decoupling trap: Type identification, trend characterization and solution path of carbon decoupling trap in urban agglomerations of China

This study investigates the stability and sustainability of carbon decoupling in urban agglomerations across China, where the strong coupling between economic growth and carbon emissions poses significant challenges. Despite efforts in energy conservation and emission reduction, urban agglomerations have seen unsatisfactory results. By analyzing the real-pseudo decoupling states in 19 urban agglomerations from 2007 to 2020, the objective of this study is to identify the type and trend characteristics of carbon decoupling traps and to propose solution paths for maintaining decoupling stability. Major Findings: (1) The decoupling state exhibits volatility and instability in urban agglomerations, making them susceptible to decoupling traps. (2) Most urban agglomerations remain un-decoupled, with a few cities achieving real decoupling and gradually shifted from northeast to southeast, while pseudo-decoupling and un-decoupled cities consistently cluster in the southwest and northwest regions. (3) Real-pseudo decoupling is driven by a combination of endogenous and exogenous factors, with energy structure, population density, and environmental regulation intensity emerging as pivotal influencers. (4) Geographical factors exhibit both commonalities and variations in their impact on real-pseudo decoupling. By identifying real-pseudo decoupling states and their driving factors, this study proposes strategic solution paths to overcome carbon constraints and achieve stable decoupling in urban agglomerations, contributing to the broader goals of sustainable economic and environmental development.

Is environmental regulation conducive to the reduction of residents’ health costs? – evidence from the Chinese Family Panel Survey

BackgroundIn response to environmental degradation and the associated health challenges, the Chinese government has implemented a comprehensive array of environmental protection measures. Given the health enhancement objective of environmental protection measures and the considerable costs involved in the implementation process, evaluating whether environmental regulation is beneficial to reducing the health costs of the population is of great significance for enhancing environmental governance efficiency and social welfare. The data from the Chinese Family Panel Survey (CFPS) is applied to examine the effect of environmental regulation on the reduction of residents’ health costs from a microscopic perspective.ResultsThe results indicate that for a 1% increase in total investment in environmental governance, residents’ health costs will decrease by 0.189%. The examination of the causal pathway suggests that implementing environmental regulation can diminish residents’ health costs through improving air quality and residents’ health status. Concurrently, there exist significant heterogeneities in the role of environmental regulation in reducing residents’ health costs. The effect of environmental regulation is more pronounced for the young, males, and individuals with better self-perceived health. Furthermore, the outcome of environmental regulation exhibits greater efficacy in urban areas compared to rural areas. Lastly, market-incentive environmental regulation in reducing health costs is more effective than command-controlled regulation.ConclusionsEnhancing the intensity of environmental regulation contributes to decreasing residents’ health costs. The findings can provide policy reference for implementing environmental governance and achieving tangible enhancements in individuals' life quality.

Does enterprises agglomeration lead to increased pollution emissions? Evidence from Chinese microdata

Enterprise agglomeration provides significant economic benefits but also carries substantial environmental impacts. Using the China Industrial Enterprise Database, this research develops novel metrics to comprehensively quantify specialization and diversity within enterprise agglomeration patterns in the Chinese industry from 1998 to 2012. Meanwhile, this study also theoretically links levels of enterprise agglomeration to pollution levels by extending established models and testing these relationships empirically with emissions data from the period. The study finds that enterprise agglomeration has a "U-shaped" relationship with environmental pollution that is modified by factors like fossil fuel intensity and strength of environmental regulations. The conclusions suggest priorities for sustainable development include optimizing degrees of enterprise agglomeration and promoting energy efficiency and stricter standards to support long-term compatibility between economic clustering through enterprise agglomeration and environmental performance goals.

How does improving agricultural mechanization affect the green development of agriculture? Evidence from China

Over the past two decades, China has actively pursued a green, low-carbon economy in response to climate change. Amidst rapid economic development, China's green total factor productivity—a key metric reflecting the nation's green development—has notably risen. As a developing country with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, agriculture plays a key role in China. China has persistently strived to comprehensively promote the scale and scope of agricultural mechanization, recognizing it as a crucial gauge to enhance agricultural productivity, thereby facilitating agricultural modernization and ensuring food security. However, can elevating the agricultural mechanization level improve China's green development within the agricultural sector? Specifically, how does agricultural mechanization (AM) affect agricultural green total factor productivity (AGTFP)? To address these questions, we assess the effects of agricultural mechanization on agricultural green total factor productivity and examine its channels using panel data from 30 provinces in China spanning from 2000 to 2021. Additionally, we investigate the heterogeneous effects under different levels of economic development, agricultural economic development, environmental regulation intensity, and agricultural technology. The results indicate that: First, the development of agricultural mechanization promotes the agricultural green total factor productivity. Second, channel analysis indicates that agricultural mechanization can bolster agricultural green total factor productivity through three channels: enhancing agricultural management level, improving agricultural factor efficiency, and fostering diversification of agricultural industrial structure. Third, heterogeneous analysis suggests that agricultural mechanization exerts a more pronounced impact on agricultural green total factor productivity in provinces characterized by lower levels of economic development, more backward agricultural economic development, higher environmental regulation intensity, and more advanced agricultural technology. This article is anticipated to furnish empirical evidence from China for developing nations seeking to foster agricultural green sustainable development through the widespread adoption of agricultural mechanization, thereby contributing significantly to global efforts to mitigate climate change.

Examining the impact of environmental centralization on enterprise total factor productivity through a quasi-natural experiment conducted in China

This paper explores the effects and influence mechanisms of environmental centralization on enterprise technological progress and productivity in China. Taking the reform of vertical environmental governance (VEG) as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper compares the differences in total factor productivity (TFP) of enterprises in environmental centralization regions and environmental decentralization regions by adopting the staggered difference-in-differences (DID) method. The empirical results show that: (1) The average TFP of enterprises in the environmental centralization areas is 0.0598 higher than that in the environmental decentralization areas, and this average effect increases with the extension of the reform duration. (2) Environmental centralization strengthens government intervention in environmental issues. The improvement in the intensity of environmental regulation and the willingness of firm green innovation are the intermediate causes of the improvement in enterprise TFP. (3) VEG’s effect is heterogeneous regarding regional development, industry type, and enterprise characteristics. This study has empirical implications for further refining the fiscal system to leverage the role of public finance on environmental governance and enterprise development.

Facilitating or inhibiting: coal-fired power generation and firm productivity in China

ABSTRACT The study investigates the causal impact of opening coal-fired power plants on firm productivity, utilizing data on the distribution of these plants and firm-level microdata in China from 1998 to 2014. The research design relies on a difference-in-differences strategy to compare productivity differences between firms located near and far away from coal-fired power plants before and after their opening. The results show that the opening of coal-fired power plants reduced the total factor productivity of surrounding firms by 7.8% on average. By exploring its mechanism, we found that this negative effect is mainly due to serious air pollution caused by the opening of coal-fired power plants. For every 1% increase in sulphur dioxide emitted by a coal-fired power plant, the TFP of surrounding firms decreases by 0.42%. Further analysis shows that coal-fired power plants have a greater negative impact on total factor productivity of private firms, small firms, and regions with lower environmental regulation intensity. This study deepens the understanding of the negative externalities of energy infrastructure and resource utilization, and emphasizes the importance of energy transition.

Can internet development improve carbon emission efficiency for manufacturing? The role of market integration

Improving carbon emission efficiency of manufacturing is important for promoting low-carbon development and achieving harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. In this study, we use the Global-MinDS model to measure the carbon emission efficiency of China's provincial manufacturing from 2011 to 2020. To do so, we construct a mathematical model to analyze the mechanism of the interaction among internet development, market integration, and carbon emission efficiency of manufacturing. Then, we empirically examine the carbon emission reduction effect of internet development using the Bartik instrument variable method and verify the significance of market integration. Our results show that internet development can significantly improve the carbon emission efficiency of manufacturing, promoting manufacturing low-carbon transformation. Carbon emission reduction effect of internet development is characterized by heterogeneity in market integration, environmental regulation, and policy intensity. This means that the impact of internet development is more pronounced in lower integration regions, higher environmental regulation intensity and in big data comprehensive experimental zone. Intermediate mechanism tests show that internet development can promote market integration by reducing external transaction costs, so as to play a carbon emission reduction effect in the market mechanism. Our study provides empirical evidence for the carbon emission reduction effect of the digital economy and offers valuable references for effectively promoting the low-carbon transformation of manufacturing in China from the perspective of unified market.

Could the Aging of the Rural Population Boost Green Agricultural Total Factor Productivity? Evidence from China

The aging of the rural population is one of the important social problems facing China and the world. To provide strategic support for coping with the challenges brought by an aging society, this study examined the impact of aging of the rural population on agricultural green total factor productivity (AGTFP) and the mechanism of transmission between them, based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2000 to 2022. The results showed that, first, the aging of the rural population had a negative inhibitory effect on AGTFP, a conclusion that remained valid after a series of robustness tests. Second, the heterogeneity analysis showed that the aging of the rural population in western China had a significant negative impact on AGTFP, while the effect was less significant in eastern and central regions. The intensity of environmental regulation will increase the negative impact of an aging rural population on AGTFP. Third, the analysis of the mechanism showed that the aging of the rural population had a negative impact on AGTFP by inhibiting labor productivity, scientific research and innovation, and farmland transfer.

Measurement of Tourism Ecological Efficiency and Analysis of Influencing Factors under the Background of Climate Change: A Case Study of Three Provinces in China’s Cryosphere

Against the backdrop of climate change and the “dual carbon” goals, enhancing the ecological efficiency of cryospheric tourism is crucial not only for the high-quality development of the tourism industry itself but also for the protection of the ecological environment and the promotion of green sustainable development in the cryospheric region. In light of this, this study, taking climate change as its background and based on the perspective of carbon emission constraints, integrates multidimensional factors such as “climate change, carbon emission constraints, and cryospheric resources” into a unified measurement framework to construct a model for evaluating the ecological efficiency of tourism in the cryosphere. Specifically, the model considers inputs, expected outputs, and unexpected outputs. Subsequently, employing the super-efficiency slack-based measure (SBM) model, this study measures the tourism ecological efficiency (TEE) of three provinces (Xinjiang, Qinghai, Tibet) in the cryosphere from 2013 to 2021 and utilizes the Malmquist–Luenberger index and gray correlation model to reveal their dynamic changes, efficiency decomposition, and influencing factors. The results indicate that: (1) The overall mean of TEE in the cryosphere is between 0.2428 and 1.2142, Over the study period, the average annual growth rate and corresponding confidence interval were 14.74%, (−8.61%, 64.23%), showing a significant fluctuating growth trend. Among them, Xinjiang stands out, with its mean scores ranging from 0.2418 to 1.6229, surpassing the overall average level of the cryosphere. (2) During the study period, the overall dynamic efficiency of tourism ecology in the cryosphere increased by 21.54%, driven by the synergy of technological progress (TC), pure technical efficiency (PET), and scale efficiency (SE). For each province, the dynamic efficiency of tourism ecology has improved, but to varying degrees. (3) Regarding the driving factors of TEE in the cryosphere, each driving factor is closely related to TEE, ranked from large to small as follows: carbon emission structure, level of economic development, infrastructure, intensity of technological input, industrial structure, resource endowment, and environmental regulation. This article holds theoretical and practical significance for promoting the high-quality development of polar tourism and achieving synergistic progress between the economy and environment.

Auditing leading officials: Unintended consequences of government audit reform on corporate green innovation

How does a major government audit reform targeting leading officials in China affect corporate green innovation (GI)? Existing studies inadequately examine the relationship between the end-of-tenure audit of natural resource assets (EANRA) and corporate GI performance. Employing a difference-in-difference-in-differences approach and utilizing data from Chinese industrial enterprises spanning 2008 to 2020, we identify that EANRA significantly hinders corporate GI, particularly for large enterprises, those operating in less competitive industries, and those located in the eastern and central regions. This effect is more pronounced in cities with newly appointed and outgoing leading officials, short-tenure mayors, and stricter environmental regulation intensity. The crowding-out effect occurs as EANRA inhibits corporate GI by reducing innovation inputs and imposing cost constraints. However, the EANRA effect can be mitigated by internal controls and media coverage. Our findings highlight the unintended consequences of government audit reform for GI in developing countries like China.