Environmental Governance Investment Research Articles

Testing the Effectiveness of Government Investments in Environmental Governance: Evidence from China

The Chinese government has taken many measures to improve the environment, such as directly investing in pollution control infrastructure, but the effectiveness remains to be tested. This paper employs the Toda–Yamamoto test and the Fourier Toda–Yamamoto test to examine the link between environmental governance investment and environmental quality in China from 2003 to 2020. PM2.5, which measures air quality, is used here as an indicator of the environment. The results reveal that environmental governance investment has notably lessened the average concentration of PM2.5 in certain regions, indicating a positive effect on environmental quality, albeit with regional variations. Taking structural breaks into consideration, the relationship between environmental governance investment and environmental amelioration is significant in a smaller number of regions. Additionally, the cross-sectional correlation is further scrutinized to assess the essential robustness of the causality between the two variables. The findings lend support to the aforementioned conclusion. These conclusions provide valuable guidance for China’s policymakers in optimizing environmental governance investments to curb pollution and achieve sustainable development.

Testing the Effectiveness of Government Investments in Environmental Governance: Evidence from China

The Chinese government has taken many measures to improve the environment, such as directly investing in pollution control infrastructure, but the effectiveness remains to be tested. This paper employs the Toda–Yamamoto test and the Fourier Toda–Yamamoto test to examine the link between environmental governance investment and environmental quality in China from 2003 to 2020. PM2.5, which measures air quality, is used here as an indicator of the environment. The results reveal that environmental governance investment has notably lessened the average concentration of PM2.5 in certain regions, indicating a positive effect on environmental quality, albeit with regional variations. Taking structural breaks into consideration, the relationship between environmental governance investment and environmental amelioration is significant in a smaller number of regions. Additionally, the cross-sectional correlation is further scrutinized to assess the essential robustness of the causality between the two variables. The findings lend support to the aforementioned conclusion. These conclusions provide valuable guidance for China’s policymakers in optimizing environmental governance investments to curb pollution and achieve sustainable development.

Performance Evaluation of Economic Relocation Effect for Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations: Evidence from China

Abstract In this article, an economic natural experiment in China is analyzed and the performance evaluation of the economic relocation effect of informal environmental regulations imposed through the channel of environmental nongovernmental organizations (ENGOs) is suggested. ENGOs are found to have a significantly negative impact on the overall economic location quotient of six major polluting industries. The economic relocation effect from ENGOs exhibits industrial and regional heterogeneity, as the effect is stronger among easy-to-relocate industries and in market-oriented areas. The underlying mechanism is the ENGOs, as informal environmental regulations could motivate firms to enhance their investment in environmental governance, ultimately crowding out these economically polluting industries.

Co-benefits and influencing factors exploration of air pollution and carbon reduction in China: Based on marginal abatement costs

This study addresses the pressing need for cost-effective emission reduction strategies that maximize co-benefits in terms of air pollution and carbon emissions. Our research contributes to the literature by accurately measuring these co-benefits, thereby facilitating their prompt realization in different regions. We employ an input-output framework that integrates carbon emissions and air pollution, allowing us to calculate marginal abatement costs using the shadow price of undesired output. Through this approach, we quantify the co-benefits and analyze the factors influencing them at both spatiotemporal and factor levels using spatial kernel density and geographical detectors. Our findings reveal several key insights: (1) under joint emission reduction efforts, we observe average annual reduction rates of 6.46% for marginal pollution and 6.10% for carbon reduction costs. Importantly, we document an increase in co-benefits from 0.50 to 0.86, characterized by an initial fluctuation followed by a linear increase. (2) the marginal cost difference for carbon emission and pollution reduction in western China was 179.45 and 155.08 respectively, compared to 321.51 and 124.70 in the Northeast, highlighting the crucial role of regional differences in shaping co-benefit outcomes. (3) we identify a negative spatial spillover effect between provinces, which diminishes over time, leading to heterogeneous effects when local provincial co-benefits exceed a threshold of 0.9. (4) during the adjustment period, we find that the industrial structure exerts significant single and interactive effects on co-benefits. Additionally, we highlight the critical role of environmental governance investment and government intervention as drivers of co-benefits in the current era. By offering the quantification of co-benefits under the marginal abatement costs, our study provides valuable scientific insights for planning and implementing effective synergy strategies.

Spatio-temporal characteristics of land ecological security and analysis of influencing factors in cities of major grain-producing regions of China

The increasingly critical ecological environment in the major grain-producing regions (MGPRs) of China has attracted widespread attention, but there is limited research at the city level. This study presented a land ecological security (LES) evaluation index system based on the pressure, state, response (PSR) model. It used the panel entropy weight method, kernel density function method, Moran index model, and spatial econometric model to measure LES of 158 cities in MGPRs from 2005 to 2020, and analyzed the spatial and temporal evolutionary trends, spatial divergence characteristics, and influencing factors of LES. The results are as follows. (1) From 2005 to 2020, the overall trend of urban LES level was rising, but it experienced an N-shape fluctuation trajectory of “rise-fall-rise”. The state index and response index were on an upward trend, while the pressure index had a certain degree of decline. (2) LES was characterized by the spatial distribution of “high in the north and low in the south” and “high in the east and low in the west”, while spatial heterogeneity became increasingly significant, with greater spatial differences within the northern cities and within the central cities. (3) There was a significant spatial spillover effect of LES, but the effect decreased with the expansion of spatial divergence. The spatial association patterns mainly exhibited “high-high” (HH) and “low-low” (LL) agglomerations. (4) The response layer was the main obstacle subsystem, while green space per capita, environmental governance investment, precipitation per capita, arable land per capita, and agricultural development were the main obstacle factors. (5) Economic development, fiscal decentralization, industrial advancement, and innovation input were the positive factors of LES, whereas financial development and industrial development were the negative factors of LES. The findings provide effective policy reference for the sustainable utilization of urban land resources.

Can financial technology development reduce household energy consumption? Evidence from China.

This paper examines whether financial technology (FinTech) development affect household energy consumption. The proposed point that FinTech can reduce household energy consumption is theoretically discussed and empirically tested using data from the 2017 Digital Financial Inclusion Index, the 2018 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), the 2018 China Environmental Statistical Yearbook and the 2018 China Science and Technology Statistical Yearbook. The results show that FinTech contributes to reducing household energy consumption. Several retests, including the instrumental variable, replacement sample and propensity score matching methods, prove its robustness. Mechanism tests show that investment in environmental governance and technological innovation promotion are the two main transmission channels. We also find that the reducing effect is more significant in the following groups: the low-middle income level classes, the eastern regional residents, those with bachelor's degrees and above, the those aged over 60 and rural residents. The outcomes of this paper call for government departments to positively guide FinTech development to reduce household energy consumption. From another perspective, the conclusions drawn from our analysis make a great reference value for countries and provide new ideas for Chinese carbon peaking and carbon neutralisation goals.

The role of environmental justice: Environmental courts, analysts' earnings pressure and corporate environmental governance

The dampening impact of analysts' earnings pressure on corporate environmental performance has gradually attracted attention. Environmental judicial specialization may be an effect way to alleviate managers' earnings obsession and impel corporate environmental governance in emerging economies. Using a panel data of listed companies in China, this study mainly explores the impact of analysts' earnings pressure on corporate environmental governance and the moderating role of environmental courts on this effect from the perspective of environmental judicial specialization. We discover that: (1) the rise of analysts' earnings pressure will urge managers to cut environmental governance investment, and this effect is more prominent for firms with higher profits volatility, higher stock turnover, and lower analyst coverage; (2) environmental courts weaken the detriment of analysts' earnings pressure on corporate environmental investment; (3) the moderating role of environmental courts is especially prominent in firms with higher economic contribution and firms subjected to weaker environmental regulatory intensity. Furthermore, the establishment of environmental courts mitigates the detriment of analysts' earnings pressure on non-financial environmental disclosure. Our findings have great significance for firms plagued by earnings pressure and regulators involved in ecological governance.

Can civilized city construction facilitate green total factor productivity? A quasi-natural experiment based on China’s pilot civilized city

This paper uses a double difference method to examine the impact of civilized city policies on urban green total factor productivity and its mechanism of action using Chinese city-level data from 2005 to 2021. The study finds that the civilized city policy promotes urban green development. The mechanism test finds that the civilized city policy achieves urban green development by strengthening government investment in environmental governance, optimizing industrial structure upgrading, and promoting urban innovation. The moderating mechanism finds that economic growth targets and environmental regulations influence the green growth effect of civilized city policy. Heterogeneity analysis found that the green growth effect of civilized cities has an asymmetric relationship in the east-central region, in areas with lower population density, and was more pronounced in cities with high human capital, high local government financial autonomy, and high levels of information technology.

A Study of the Effect of Trade Openness on Population Health: Empirical Evidence from China

Currently, the international economy is experiencing profound and intricate transformations, while economic globalization is encountering unprecedented challenges and witnessing a surge in counter-globalization sentiments. Critics express concerns over the potential detrimental effects of trade liberalization on the welfare of low-income groups, particularly in developing countries. China, as the largest developing country, also holds the status of a major trading nation. Using panel data from 285 prefecture-level cities across China during 2000–2019, this study examines how trade openness affects population health to assess the welfare effects of trade openness, providing new theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence to further promote economic globalization and improve human health and well-being. The results show that trade openness can significantly promote population health. And, a series of robustness tests show that the above conclusion is still valid. Trade openness has a greater positive impact on the health of the population of the eastern and central regions, the coastal cities, and high-trade-openness cities. An analysis of the mechanism reveal that trade openness mainly promotes population health through channels such as labor employment, wage income, public health investment, and personal health investment. However, trade openness can also lead to environmental pollution, which has a significant negative impact on population health. Additionally, through threshold effects analysis, it becomes evident that the relationship between trade openness and population health is nonlinear. This implies that there are critical thresholds related to the economic development stage, investment in environmental governance, and environmental infrastructure construction. Falling below or exceeding these thresholds may lead to different interval effects on the impact of trade openness on population health.

Identifying the Internal Coupling Coordination Relationship of Forest Ecological Security and Its Spatial Influencing Factors

Forest ecological security is an important guarantee for national security and the healthy development of forestry. Existing research has been limited to the comprehensive evaluation and obstruction factors of forest ecological security, and this study innovatively analyzes internal coordination of forest ecological security and its spatial influencing factors in order to enhance the internal coordination of the forest ecosystem and promote the coordinated improvement of regional forest ecological security. Firstly, the forest ecological security in China from 2006 to 2020 was evaluated. On this basis, the coupling coordination degree of forest ecological security (FESD) was calculated, and its influencing factors and spatial spillover effects were analyzed using the spatial econometric model. The results show that: (1) most of China’s provincial forest ecological security is at a critical and relatively safe level, and shows a trend of gradual improvement; (2) FESD in 25 provinces, represented by Guangxi, is in the acceptable range and is constantly improving; and (3) annual mean temperature, urbanization rate, completed forestry investment, and forest pest control have been positive influences on FESD. Forest population density, per capita GDP, and investment in environmental governance have significant negative influences. In addition, completed forestry investment, annual mean temperature, urbanization rate, forest population density, and forest pest control have significant spillover effects on FESD. Therefore, in the process of forest ecological management, it is necessary to further strengthen investments in forestry and pest control, and to pay more attention to the interaction between regions.

The Government’s Environmental Attention and the Sustainability of Environmental Protection Expenditure: Evidence from China

Transformation to a green economy depends on long-term, continuous government financial investments in the environmental protection field. This study used the budget and final accounts of provincial environmental protection expenditure in China from 2007 to 2019 to establish a two-way fixed-effects model to verify the impact of government attention on environmental protection expenditure. The sustainability of Chinese local governments’ environmental protection expenditure is weak, and the fluctuations conform to the punctuated equilibrium characteristics. Fluctuations in government attention have a significant positive impact on changes in fiscal environmental protection expenditure, and the characteristics of campaign governance are relatively obvious. Fiscal transparency can strengthen the relationship between government attention and the environmental protection expenditure budget; however, the adjustment effect on the final accounts of environmental protection expenditure, which depend more on the budget implementation process, is not significant. To improve the effectiveness of environmental governance, government departments must pay long-term and sustained attention to environmental issues, improve the transparency of the implementation process of environmental protection expenditure budgets, strengthen the role of public supervision, and ensure investment in environmental governance.

Efficiency Calculation and Evaluation of Environmental Governance Using the Theory of Production, Life, and Ecology Based on Panel Data from 27 Provinces in China from 2003 to 2020

Promoting green development and promoting harmonious coexistence between humans and nature are strategic tasks for the construction of ecological civilization in China in the new era. Currently, the growing environmental governance investment in China has not performed well, and the low efficiency of environmental governance has become the main problem facing the development of ecological civilization in China. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to scientifically measure the efficiency of environmental governance and improve the efficiency of environmental governance input factors to achieve green development and overcome the difficulties in the construction of ecological civilization. In this study, an improved three-stage SBM model and cloud model combined with the Theory of production, life, and ecology were used to measure the environmental governance efficiency of 27 provinces in China from 2003 to 2020 and conduct in-depth analysis and evaluation. The results show that: First, the influence of random error factors and external environmental conditions on the efficiency of rural domestic sewage treatment in China is significant. Their existence will underestimate the environmental governance efficiency in the central and western regions of China and overestimate the environmental governance efficiency in the eastern regions of China, except for Hainan Province. Second, after excluding the influence of random errors and external environment conditions, the adjusted efficiency mean value of the central and western regions significantly increases, while the environmental governance efficiency of most provinces in the eastern region, except for Hainan Province, decreases significantly. Third, the overall environmental governance efficiency of the 27 provinces in China still presents a situation wherein the western region is ranked first in efficiency, the eastern region ranks second, and the central region ranks third. The environmental governance efficiency of the 27 provinces shows a “large at both ends, small in the middle” and “low efficiency in the eastern and central regions, and instability in the western region” state, and there is a large difference in the degree of environmental governance efficiency among the various provinces. In this regard, for the eastern and central regions, special attention should be paid to their government’s transformation of development thinking, placing greater emphasis on balanced and coordinated development between urbanization, industrialization, and the environment. As for the western region, due to its harsh environmental conditions, it attaches more importance to environmental governance. However, efforts should be made to strengthen its economic development to ensure sufficient provision of material conditions such as infrastructure and equipment required for environmental governance in order to achieve stable environmental governance efficiency in the western region. For the central region, both the economy and the environment need to be further strengthened.

Approaches for assessing the public administration activities in the field of ensuring sustainability

Paper has tried to find a balance between the traditional role of public administration (transparency, efficiency, information symmetry and other values of common European administrative space) and the new role since the European Green Deal (2020) and public procurement reform (2014) as a policy tool for promoting green growth. It has been argued that Green Public Governance Efficiency can be assessed according to inputs and outputs. The information can be organised into several categories: Investment in Environmental governance, public institution energy consumption and green public procurement. Some variables can be waged as outputs: sustainable development growth index (SDGI), consumer engagement in green governance and the achievement of Green Public Procurement (GPP) criteria. It is difficult to arrive at conclusions about a need for appropriate instrumental variables. Despite the limitations, these are valuable in light of how Public Administration can contribute to environmental protection and long-term growth.

Exploring Spatial Correlations of Tourism Ecological Security in China: A Perspective from Social Network Analysis.

The imbalance of regional tourism ecological security (TES) is an important barrier to the sustainable development of tourism. Relying on the spatial correlation network to coordinate the regional TES is effective. Taking 31 provinces in China as examples, social network analysis (SNA) and the quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) are used to analyze the spatial network structure of TES and its influencing factors. The results show that (1) the network density and the number of network relationships increased, while the network efficiency remained at approximately 0.7, and the network hierarchy decreased from 0.376 to 0.234. (2) Jiangsu, Guangdong, Shandong, Zhejiang, and Henan were always more central than the average and dominated. Anhui, Shanghai, and Guangxi have much lower centrality degrees than the average, with little effect on other provinces. (3) The TES networks could be divided into four parts: "net spillover", "agent", "bidirectional spillover" and "net benefit". (4) The differences in economic development level, tourism industry dependence, tourism load level, educational attainment, investment in environmental governance, and transportation accessibility all had a negative impact on the TES spatial network, whereas geographic proximity had a positive driving effect. In conclusion, the spatial correlation network of provincial TES in China is increasingly close, but the network structure is loose and hierarchical. The core-edge structure is obvious, and there are significant spatial autocorrelations and spatial spillover effects between provinces. The difference in regional influencing factors has a significant effect on the TES network. This paper presents a new research framework for the spatial correlation of TES and provides a Chinese solution to promote the sustainable development of tourism.

Regional Corruption, Foreign Trade, and Environmental Pollution

As an effective means and an important guarantee for environmental pollution management in China, enhancing the level of foreign openness and reducing the level of regional corruption, respectively, the successful implementation of both are key steps in determining the future development of China’s transformation of trade development and green transformation. This paper attempts to systematically examine the mechanisms of regional corruption and foreign trade on environmental pollution from both theoretical and empirical levels. Using the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2004 to 2017, this study constructs a dynamic panel model with a one-stage pollution index. The system GMM is used to verify the relationship between corruption, trade, and the environment. Empirical results show that corruption reduces investment in environmental governance, R&D, and the introduction of environmental technology, and it increases environmental pollution by reducing the implementation and control of environmental policies. After excluding the effect of corruption on trade, foreign trade is conducive to the improvement of environmental pollution. Meanwhile, the intensification of corruption on pollution will be weakened with increased openness; that is, China’s expansion of foreign trade is beneficial to attenuating the pollution effect of corruption on the environment. These findings suggest that expanding trade will ultimately improve the environment and even mitigate the negative impact of corruption on the environment. Therefore, China should dredge the channel of factor flow, give full play to the vitality of market players, strictly investigate corruption, and encourage opening up.

Influence Mechanism of Different Environmental Regulations on Carbon Emission Efficiency.

The rational use of environmental regulation tools has become an important means by which to improve the efficiency of carbon emissions. Different types of environmental regulations and their combinations have different impacts on carbon emission efficiency. In order to determine the environmental regulation configurations that may achieve high carbon emission efficiency or lead to low carbon emission efficiency, we constructed an analytical framework of connections between environmental regulation configurations and carbon emission efficiency. Moreover, 30 Chinese provinces from the period covering 2016 to 2019 were selected as research cases. In addition, the super slacks-based measure of efficiency (SE-SBM) model was applied to evaluate carbon emission efficiency. Finally, the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method was employed to analyze the impact of different environmental regulation configurations on carbon emission efficiency. The results showed that the carbon emission efficiency of various regions of China is generally low (with most regions not having reached an effective level) and that there are large regional differences. We found that there are four environmental regulation configurations that can achieve high carbon emission efficiency and two environmental regulation configurations that lead to low carbon emission efficiency. Based on these configurations, we draw three conclusions: (1) There are three paths to achieving high carbon emission efficiency: one that values command-and-control environmental regulation but disfavors market-incentive environmental regulation, another that combines command-and-control environmental regulation with market-incentive environmental regulation, and a third that couples command-and-control environmental regulation with voluntary environmental regulation. (2) Two paths that may lead to low carbon emission efficiency were established: excessive penalties and the lack of specific measures. (3) In some conditions, environmental governance investment and fiscal expenditure could be substituted for each other; environmental protection administrative penalties and pollution charges are synchronized; environmental governance investment in the promotion of carbon emission efficiency is indispensable. Policies and suggestions on how the government can use environmental regulation tools to improve carbon emission efficiency are proposed from a general coordinative perspective in the final section of this paper.

How Does Environmental Regulation Affect the Green Growth of China's Citrus Industry? The Mediating Role of Technological Innovation.

Exploring suitable types and intensities of environmental regulations to promote technological innovation and guide industrial green growth is an essential goal for China. This paper uses the SBM super-efficiency model with the GML index to measure the level of green growth in China’s citrus industry from 2008 to 2019, and examines the impact generated by heterogeneous environmental regulations and the mediating effect of technological innovation using a panel Tobit model. The study found that: (1) From 2008 to 2019, the green growth level of the citrus industry has gradually improved, with an average annual growth rate of 2.7%, and the contribution of technical efficiency is more significant than technological progress. (2) The green growth of the citrus industry is closely related to the intensity and type of environmental regulation. The impact of market-incentive environmental regulation has an inverted U-shape, the impact of guidance-based environmental regulation is U-shaped, and the command-and-control environmental regulation has no significant effect. (3) The mediating effect suggests that guidance-based environmental regulation promotes green growth in the citrus industry by stimulating technological innovation. In contrast, market-incentive environmental regulation inhibits technological innovation and thus discourages green growth in the citrus industry. According to the study results, the government should strive to ensure the effective implementation of environmental laws and regulations, optimize the channels and amounts of investment in environmental governance, strengthen environmental protection-related media campaigns, and guide the citrus industry to break through technological bottlenecks to promote green growth.

Environmental governance investment and Air Quality: Based on China’s provincial panel data

Ambient air pollution is an important environmental problem that impacts the health and sustainable development of human beings. Many measures have been taken by governments to decrease air pollution. This paper focuses on whether government investment has a positive effect on air quality. Based on China’s environmental statistics from 2003 to 2020, the Spatiotemporal Weighted Regression Model is used to observe the spatiotemporal correlation between environmental governance investment and air quality in different provinces in China, finding that there is a negative time-space correlation between environmental governance investment and air quality. In addition, environmental governance investment will not immediately improve air quality, and air pollution has the characteristics of spatial overflow that the pollution between regions affect each other. Then, to further research governments how to deal with environmental protection, configuration analysis has been used, and finds out four high-performance paths for environmental governance of China’s provinces. At the end of this research, we put forward four suggestions for air protection. Firstly, government should formulate long-term air governance policies. Secondly, government environmental governance of air pollution should pay attention to the cooperativity of environmental governance between regions. Thirdly, the third sectors, companies and the public should be encouraged in air protection. Fourthly, government should build a whole-process air governance strategy.

How the Establishment of the National Civilized City Promotes Urban Green Development: From the Perspective of Administrative Competing Theory-A Quasi Experiment Study in China.

Green development is the core goal for contemporary urban areas. It has become essential to explore new types of urban green development, and the concept of the “national civilized city” which is the most influential city brand in China, has emerged. Drawing upon the administrative competing theory, based on the panel data of 281 cities in China from 2000 to 2018, this paper employs a propensity scores matching (PSM) design and a difference-in-difference (DID) approach to examine the influence of the establishment of the national civilized city policy on the green development of prefecture-level cities in China. First, the result shows that the establishment of the national civilized city policy can significantly improve the urban green total factor productivity (GTFP). Second, the mediation mechanism analyses show that the establishment of national civilized city policy can promote cities to increase their investment in R&D, increase the financial investment in environmental governance, and optimize the industrial structure, which further lays a solid foundation for urban green development. Third, the heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of civilized city construction on urban GTFP is different in terms of population and economic scales. The results show that the weight of environmental management and R&D investment should be increased in the evaluation index of the national civilized city, and the promotion of urban green development should be maximized.

The impact of government environmental attention on public health: Implications for corporate sustainable development

As major contributors to air pollution, enterprises have a growing impact on the environment, which puts public health at risk and requires urgent government intervention. This study constructs a government environmental attention variable via textual analysis of Chinese government work reports from 2004 to 2017, and examines the impact of government environmental attention on public health. We find that local government environmental attention has a significant and positive impact on public health. Our mechanism analysis suggests that government environmental governance investment acts as an important mediating channel in transferring the impact of government environmental attention on public health. Moreover, we find that the impact of government environmental attention on public health is more pronounced in Central and Western China, in low-openness regions, and after the incorporation of environmental performance in the cadre evaluation system in 2006. Overall, our study links micro-level environmental issues with macro-level governmental behaviors, providing a new perspective for future research on the influencing factors of public health and practical implications for corporate sustainable development.