Level Of Environmental Regulation Research Articles

Transboundary pollution, tax competition and the efficiency of uncoordinated environmental regulation

AbstractUnder capital tax competition, surprisingly, Ogawa and Wildasin (2009) find that uncoordinated policymaking leads to a first‐best outcome even in the presence of transboundary pollution. However, I show that if the level of environmental regulation is endogenized, the regulation level becomes too loose compared with the optimum (“race to the bottom”). Thus, despite the efficiency result of Ogawa and Wildasin (2009), efforts to achieve international environmental policy coordination are needed. I then examine the dependence of this result on the level of decisive voter's capital endowment. The regulation is inefficiently loose in many cases, but it can be too strict if the decisive voter's capital endowment is above the average. Thus, the possibility of “race to the top” cannot be eliminated. The inefficiency result does not generally depend on the timing of policymaking, although the efficiency may be restored in the limit case where the decisive voter has no capital at all.

China’s provincial total-factor air pollution emission efficiency evaluation, dynamic evolution and influencing factors

Abstract In recent years, air pollution situation becomes more severe and has seriously threatened sustainable economic development and public health in China. Combining the improved slacks-based measure (SBM) model, global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) productivity index and panel Tobit model, this paper investigates the regional differences, dynamic evolution and influencing factors of China’s provincial air pollution emission efficiency over the period 2006–2015 under the total-factor framework. Our results show that: (1) China’s total-factor air pollution emission efficiency is relatively low and exhibits significant regional differences; (2) technological progress is the main contributor to ameliorate China’s provincial total-factor air pollution emission efficiency; (3) the total-factor air pollution emission efficiency gap between the higher- and the lower-efficient provinces will probably widen in the future; (4) China’s provincial total-factor air pollution emission efficiency is significantly positive related to the level of economic development, industrial structure optimization, technological innovation and foreign direct investment (FDI), is significantly negative related to the energy consumption structure. The above results indicate that China has made remarkable achievements in improving regional total-factor air pollution emission efficiency. However, there is considerable potential for further improvement. Policy options for China’s regional total-factor air pollution emission efficiency improvement include but not limited to optimizing industrial and energy consumption structure, promoting environmental technology innovation, strengthening cooperation and exchange between different regions, deepening the reform of energy market and energy pricing mechanism, actively introducing foreign investment, and further improving environmental regulation level.

Research on Threshold Effect of Environmental Regulation and Green Total Factor Productivity

This paper selects the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2005 to 2016, and uses the threshold effect model to analyze the correlation between environmental regulation and green total factor productivity (GTFP). The results show that: The impact of environmental regulation on GTFP is non-linear and has a double threshold effect. Therefore, the local governments of all provinces should continue to play a positive role in environmental regulation, reasonably adjust the level of environmental regulation according to local specific economic development and industrialization level, etc., and strive to promote the transformation of medium and high polluting enterprises to green environmental protection enterprises..

Does green corporate investment crowd out other business investment?

Empirical studies on the link between green investment and other business investment at the firm level either focus on innovation-specific types of investment or fail to consider the simultaneity of investment decisions. The analysis to be presented here offers a broad focus on different types of environmental protection investment (EPI) and explicitly considers simultaneity issues, using newly created panel data for German manufacturing firms. Germany is an ideal case for testing the crowding-out hypothesis, due to its high level of environmental regulation and a significant presence of command-and-control style measures, which are especially under debate as a source of crowding-out. The estimation of a behavioral investment model supports a crowding-out of other business investment through EPI in general as well as its subcategories of add-on measures and investments in renewable energy, whereby add-on measures bear the greatest potential for a deterioration of productivity.

Multiple impacts of environmental regulation on the steel industry in China: A recursive dynamic steel industry chain CGE analysis

With the increasing international attention paid to environmental issues, the ability to pursue continuous development while protecting the environment and thereby achieving a win-win situation has become a significant issue for developing countries such as China. In previous studies, environmental regulation has been proven to be an effective governance mechanism. However, few studies have attempted to analyse the comprehensive impacts and determine the optimal stringency of environmental regulation, especially for a specific industry, based on the actual situation in China. Therefore, this paper calculates the effects of the current and proposed environmental regulation of China's steel industry from 2006 to 2013 by adopting a pollution treatment approach, and based on this calculation, it constructs a recursive dynamic steel industry chain CGE model to investigate the macroeconomic, market and technology impacts from an industry chain perspective under 3 different levels of environmental regulation of the steel industry. The simulation results show that real GDP and the outputs of the downstream sectors of the steel industry will suffer slightly, while the outputs and exports of the steel industry itself will benefit from stringent environmental regulation over the long term. In addition, the material efficiency of steel use will be improved in the long term through the implementation of environmental regulation of the steel industry. Based on the results, it is recommended that a moderate level of environmental regulation should be adopted initially, which can then be smoothly transformed into more stringent regulation during a period of economic growth to avoid sudden and major shocks. In addition, this paper also provides a reference for other substantial industries in China when choosing the optimal pattern for the implementation of environmental regulations.

The Threshold Effect of Two-way FDI on Environmental Pollution Under Environmental Regulation

Based on the data of 11 provinces or cities in the Yangtze River Economic Zone from the year of 2006 to 2015,through constructing the panel threshold model, this paper analyzed the threshold effect of the two-way FDI on the upgrading of industrial structure and environment on different levels of environmental regulation. The results show that two-way FDI can effectively reduce environmental pollution, while the emission reduction effects are significantly different under different environmental regulations, too loose or too strict environmental constraints would inhibit the technical spillover effect of IFDI and the reversely technological spillover effect of OFDI, thus the environmental improvement effect cannot be fully played. In summary, only with appropriate environmental regulations, twoway FDI can promote the upgrading of the overall industrial structure of the Yangtze River economic belt, maximize its emission reduction effect at the same time, thus achieve the dual goals of economic development and environmental protection in the Yangtze River Economic Zone.

Transboundary Pollution, Tax Competition, and the Efficiency of Uncoordinated Environmental Regulation

Under capital tax competition, surprisingly, Ogawa and Wildasin (2009, American Economic Review, 99(4), 1206-1217) find that uncoordinated policymaking leads to a first-best outcome even in the presence of transboundary pollution. However, I show that if the level of environmental regulation is endogenized, the regulation level becomes too loose compared with the optimum (race to the bottom). Thus, despite the efficiency result of Ogawa and Wildasin (2009), efforts to achieve an international environmental policy coordination are needed. I then examine the dependence of this result on the level of decisive voter's capital endowment. If the decisive voter's capital endowment is below the average, uncoordinated regulation is always looser than the optimum. On the contrary, uncoordinated regulation may become inefficiently strict if it is above the average (race to the top).

Does environmental regulation promote the upgrading of china s chemical industry? ——a case study of chemical industry in jiangsu province china

Chemical industry is one of the most important industries in China, which is closely related to people. However, environmental pollution caused by chemical industry in China seriously restricts the sustainable development of China Therefore; environmental regulation is implemented in China to promote the green development of chemical industry. In order to test whether the production efficiency of chemical industry in our country is affected by environmental regulation measures, this paper takes Jiangsu Province’s chemical industry as an example to conduct empirical analysis. The study finds: As a whole, there are no typical characteristics of EKC between the three types of environmental pollution caused by economic growth and the development of chemical industry in Jiangsu and the whole country; Under the same GDP level, per capita industrial emissions and per capita COD emissions of chemical industry in Jiangsu Province are respectively higher than the national overall level, which means that Jiangsu Province has achieved certain environmental regulatory performance, but its overall of the environmental regulation level is inferior to the national average, and the impact of environmental regulation on China's chemical industry is very limited. The level of environmental pollution in China's chemical industry is still high. Finally, this paper puts forward the suggestion to promote the green development of China's chemical industry.

Can environmental regulation promote the coordinated development of economy and environment in China’s manufacturing industry?–A panel data analysis of 28 sub-sectors

Improving eco-efficiency of China’s manufacturing industry will be conducive to break the bottleneck of resources and environment constraints of industry development and further the coordinated development of economy and environment. This paper employs the panel data of 28 sub-sectors in China’s manufacturing industry during 2003–2013, divides these sub-sectors into three groups—the high, medium and low eco-efficiency industries according to the eco-efficiency level, and explores the effects of environmental regulation on technical innovation (“weak” Porter hypothesis) and eco-efficiency (“strong” Porter hypothesis) respectively. The results show that: (1) whether environmental regulation can promote the coordinated development of economy and environment in the manufacturing industry is contingent upon the reasonable level of environmental regulation. However, overall, the level of current environmental regulation is not yet sufficient to promote the improvement of eco-efficiency. (2) Industry heterogeneity exists in the effects of environmental regulation on technical innovation and eco-efficiency, that is, in the high and low eco-efficiency groups, the impact of environmental regulation on technical innovation is an inverted “U” type while that on eco-efficiency is an “U” type. (3) The impacts of environmental regulation on technical innovation and eco-efficiency in the medium eco-efficiency group are both “U” type, indicating that moderately enhancing environmental regulation can achieve the win-win situation of economic and environmental performance in this group. Lastly, we provide policy implications for different industries.

Air pollution and worker productivity

Environmental regulations are typically considered to be a drag on the economy. However, improved environmental quality may actually enhance productivity by creating a healthier workforce. Evidence suggests that improvements in air quality lead to improvements in worker productivity across a range of sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing, and the service sectors. These effects also arise at levels of air quality that are below pollution thresholds in countries with the highest levels of environmental regulation. The findings suggest a new approach for understanding the consequences of environmental regulations.

STUDY ON THE GREEN TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY IN MAIN CITIES OF CHINA

The aim of this research is to investigate China’s urban green total factor productivity (TFP) under the background of progressing urbanization and intensifying environmental pollution, and found out its main influencing factors. In this paper, green TFP of 285 prefecture-level cities in China from 2005 to 2012 was estimated through Malmquist productivity index. Results showed that the annual growth of green TFP in main cities in China is 3.5% and the overall growth declines gradually. Viewed from decomposition of green TFP, technical progress is the main contributor of green TFP growth. Furthermore, the northern coastal region has achieved the highest annual growth of green TFP (4.5%) and the northwest region achieved the lowest growth of green TFP (1.24%), indicating the great regional differences of green TFP and economic growth quality in China. According to analysis on influencing factors of green TFP in main cities, it has been concluded that per-capita urban road area, number of Internet users, proportion of fiscal expenditures, environmental regulation level and technical input are significantly positively correlated with green TFP, while industrial structure and foreign direct investment (FDI) are significantly negatively correlated. Finally, policy suggestions to improve urban green TFP in China were proposed.

Exporters and the environment

AbstractThis paper documents a relationship between international trade and environmental performance at the plant level. Using a panel of establishment‐level data from 1990–2006, I estimate the relationship between export orientation, import competition and pollution emissions. I find a robust relationship between international trade and pollution levels. Exporters emit 9% to 13% less after controlling for output, but there is significant heterogeneity across industries. Import competition is associated with the exit of the smallest, most pollution‐intensive plants. There is no evidence that this result is caused by polluting firms relocating to countries with low levels of environmental regulation and importing back into the US.

Trade Liberalization and Environmental Regulation on International Transportation

Incorporating pollution emissions from international transportation into a model of strategic trade and environmental policies, we investigate the effect of trade liberalization and environmental regulation on national welfare and the environment. Our model includes imperfectly competitive markets for international transportation and final products. We find that trade liberalization may reduce each country’s welfare unless some level of environmental regulation on international transportation is in place. When international trade is liberalized initially, a mutual increase in the common emission tax rates may improve each country’s welfare. However, when international trade is highly protected initially, imposing an emission tax may reduce welfare.

The impact of international trade on China׳s industrial carbon emissions since its entry into WTO

This paper employs the input–output (IO) approach to analyze the scale and structure of embodied carbon emissions of China׳s 19 industry sectors during 2001–2011 and constructs a regression model to establish the relationship between energy intensity, per capita output, trade openness, foreign direct investment (FDI), trade comparative advantage, environmental regulation, technology, and CO2 emission intensity. Our results suggest that: China׳s international embodied carbon emission balance has been in a state of continuous growth for the period 2001–2011, and China has become a pollution haven; the relationship between per capita output and CO2 emission is inverse N-typed and China׳s industries are in the rising stage of the curve; FDI and trade comparative advantage are two main elements boosting China׳s carbon emissions; trade openness, environmental regulation, and technology will lower the growth rate of China׳s industrial carbon emissions (ICEs). Consequently, China׳s policies should center on adjusting the industry structure and scale of FDI inflows, transforming industries with trade comparative advantages into a clean type, facilitating environmental regulation level, and bringing in and developing low-carbon technology to avert China from being a pollution haven.

Pollution Haven with Technological Externalities Arising from Foreign Direct Investment

This paper presents a two-stage game, in which in the first stage two multinational firms (MNFs) seeking pollution havens choose a location, that is, whether to export to or undertake FDI in the host country, and in the second stage, these two MNFs and a firm in the host country play a Cournot game. The MNFs’ location decisions are influenced by the fixed cost of FDI, the spillover of technologies to a foreign firm, and pollution emission standards in the host and home countries. There exist multiple equilibria in the location pattern because of the technology spillover accompanied by FDI. In addition, the analysis leads to the possibility of an equilibrium based on the Prisoners’ Dilemma. When the host country relaxes emission standards, the MNFs choose FDI, although their profits are higher if both choose to export instead. This provides a rationale for the FDI source country’s intervention to restrict the MNFs’ FDI according to the level of environmental regulation in the host country.

Osmolality-Dependent Relocation of Penicillin-Binding Protein PBP2 to the Division Site in Caulobacter crescentus

The synthesis of the peptidoglycan cell wall is carefully regulated in time and space. In nature, this essential process occurs in cells that live in fluctuating environments. Here we show that the spatial distributions of specific cell wall proteins in Caulobacter crescentus are sensitive to small external osmotic upshifts. The penicillin-binding protein PBP2, which is commonly branded as an essential cell elongation-specific transpeptidase, switches its localization from a dispersed, patchy pattern to an accumulation at the FtsZ ring location in response to osmotic upshifts as low as 40 mosmol/kg. This osmolality-dependent relocation to the division apparatus is initiated within less than a minute, while restoration to the patchy localization pattern is dependent on cell growth and takes 1 to 2 generations. Cell wall morphogenetic protein RodA and penicillin-binding protein PBP1a also change their spatial distribution by accumulating at the division site in response to external osmotic upshifts. Consistent with its ecological distribution, C. crescentus displays a narrow range of osmotolerance, with an upper limit of 225 mosmol/kg in minimal medium. Collectively, our findings reveal an unsuspected level of environmental regulation of cell wall protein behavior that is likely linked to an ecological adaptation.

Mass spectrometry for nutritional peptidomics: How to analyze food bioactives and their health effects

We describe nutritional peptidomics for discovery and validation of bioactive food peptide and their health effects. Understanding nature and bioactivity of nutritional peptides means comprehending an important level of environmental regulation of the human genome, because diet is the environmental factor with the most profound life-long influence on health. We approach the theme from three angles, namely the analysis, the discovery and the biology perspective. Food peptides derive from parent food proteins via in vitro hydrolysis (processing) or in vivo digestion by various unspecific and specific proteases, as opposed to the tryptic peptides typically generated in biomarker proteomics. A food bioactive peptide may be rare or unique in terms of sequence and modification, and many food genomes are less well annotated than e.g. the human genome. Bioactive peptides can be discovered either empirically or by prediction: we explain both the classical hydrolysis strategy and the bioinformatics-driven reversed genome engineering. In order to exert bioactivity, food peptides must be either ingested and then reach the intestine in their intact form or be liberated in situ from their parent proteins to act locally, that is in the gut, or even systemically, i.e. through the blood stream. This article is part of a Special Section entitled: Understanding genome regulation and genetic diversity by mass spectrometry.

Do environmental regulations influence the competitiveness of pollution-intensive products?

According to “Pollution Haven Effect”, in order to circumvent stringent environment standards, polluting industries in developed countries will be chosen to locate into developing countries; another way is that developed countries increase imports of pollution-intensive products instead of producing by their own, both of which can contribute to the changes of comparative advantages in the past 30 years. Since 1990s, many scholars have paid special attention on whether environmental regulations affect the trade patterns or not, but the conclusions are ambiguous. This paper, based on the Heckscher-Ohlin-Vanek (HOV) model and using 95 and 42 countries sample data in year of 2005, is an empirical analysis which shows that: (1) according to the estimated results based on the “environmental governance” index calculated by CIESIN, environmental regulations do not change the comparative advantages of five types of pollutionintensive goods; (2) On the other hand, when the per capita income is considered as an endogenous indicator of environmental regulation, environmental regulation will significantly promote the comparative advantages in chemical products, iron and steel products and paper products, though environmental regulations do not take any influence on non-metallic minerals products and non-ferrous metals products. I think that appropriate level of environmental regulation can promote a comparative advantage in pollution-intensive goods.

Are Exporters Mother Nature's Best Friends?

This paper documents a relationship between international trade and environmental performance at the establishment level. Using a panel of establishment-level data over the years 1990-2006, I estimate the relationship between export orientation, import competition and plant level characteristics. I find a robust relationship between international trade and plant level pollution emissions. Exporters emit 5.3% less than non-exporters after controlling for output and their emissions are significantly less toxic relative to non-exporters. Import competition is associated with the exit of the smallest, most pollution intensive plants. There is no evidence that this result is caused by polluting firms relocating to country’s with low levels of environmental regulation and importing back into the U.S. This result provides an additional channel through which trade liberalization may impact pollution levels, which has implications for the previous trade-and-environment literature. Additionally, I explore the channels through which productivity, international trade and environmental performance may be related. I am able to rule out liability, but not establishment size and management quality. Even after controlling for these channels there remains an unexplained relationship between international trade and emissions. Finally, I develop a theoretical framework that is consistent with the empirical findings above. The empirical results are quite robust and suggest a strong relationship between international trade, environmental performance and plant-level productivity, but the direction of causality remains something of a mystery. JEL Classication: F1, Q5

Pollution export as state and corporate strategy: Japan in the 1970s

ABSTRACT Most economists examining the question of ‘pollution havens’ have concluded that the level of environmental regulation and activism in different states is not generally a significant determinant of international patterns of trade and foreign direct investment. This paper argues on the basis of extensive primary research that with respect to Japan's foreign direct investment during the 1970s, at any rate, this conclusion needs to be rethought. In the early 1970s, Japanese actors were remarkably forthright in ascribing their investment decisions to a desire to move polluting industry overseas. These statements allow us to examine ‘pollution export’ as a state strategy, a project advocated by industry organizations, and a response of individual firms to high levels of protest and regulation. The paper also traces the development of the Japanese debate over pollution export through the 1970s.