IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v32y2023i1p538-550.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How do environmental regulations influence resource misallocation in China? The role of investment flows

Author

Listed:
  • Xinze Li
  • Luojia Wang
  • Kerui Du

Abstract

In recent years, the Chinese government has implemented numerous regulations to address environmental deterioration. Several studies have examined the effect of environmental regulation policies on China's economic performance. However, whether environmental regulations can alleviate China's resource misallocation problem—a critical issue in transitional economies—remains unclear. This study fills this gap in the literature by employing the difference‐in‐differences method to examine how environmental regulations affect resource misallocation. We found that stringent environmental regulations have reduced the extent of resource misallocation in China, with resource reallocation being the driving force behind this improvement. The emission reduction mandate reduces investment inflows and hinders firms' entry into regions with low total factor productivity, while directing the flow of resources to highly productive areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Xinze Li & Luojia Wang & Kerui Du, 2023. "How do environmental regulations influence resource misallocation in China? The role of investment flows," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 538-550, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:32:y:2023:i:1:p:538-550
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.3159
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.3159
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.3159?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ay?egül ?ahin & Joseph Song & Giorgio Topa & Giovanni L. Violante, 2014. "Mismatch Unemployment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(11), pages 3529-3564, November.
    2. Brian R. Copeland & M. Scott Taylor, 2004. "Trade, Growth, and the Environment," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(1), pages 7-71, March.
    3. Gary S. Becker & Kevin M. Murphy & Robert Tamura, 1994. "Human Capital, Fertility, and Economic Growth," NBER Chapters, in: Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education, Third Edition, pages 323-350, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Philippe Aghion & Antoine Dechezleprêtre & David Hémous & Ralf Martin & John Van Reenen, 2016. "Carbon Taxes, Path Dependency, and Directed Technical Change: Evidence from the Auto Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(1), pages 1-51.
    5. Joseph S. Shapiro & Reed Walker, 2018. "Why Is Pollution from US Manufacturing Declining? The Roles of Environmental Regulation, Productivity, and Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(12), pages 3814-3854, December.
    6. Olley, G Steven & Pakes, Ariel, 1996. "The Dynamics of Productivity in the Telecommunications Equipment Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(6), pages 1263-1297, November.
    7. Diego Restuccia & Richard Rogerson, 2008. "Policy Distortions and Aggregate Productivity with Heterogeneous Plants," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 11(4), pages 707-720, October.
    8. Allen Blackman & Zhengyan Li & Antung A. Liu, 2018. "Efficacy of Command-and-Control and Market-Based Environmental Regulation in Developing Countries," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 10(1), pages 381-404, October.
    9. Loren Brandt & Trevor Tombe & Xiadong Zhu, 2013. "Factor Market Distortions Across Time, Space, and Sectors in China," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(1), pages 39-58, January.
    10. Brandt, Loren & Van Biesebroeck, Johannes & Zhang, Yifan, 2012. "Creative accounting or creative destruction? Firm-level productivity growth in Chinese manufacturing," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 339-351.
    11. J. Vernon Henderson & Adam Storeygard & David N. Weil, 2012. "Measuring Economic Growth from Outer Space," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(2), pages 994-1028, April.
    12. Aoki, Shuhei, 2012. "A simple accounting framework for the effect of resource misallocation on aggregate productivity," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 473-494.
    13. Andersen, Dana C., 2018. "Accounting for loss of variety and factor reallocations in the welfare cost of regulations," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 69-94.
    14. Yang, Zhenbing & Fan, Meiting & Shao, Shuai & Yang, Lili, 2017. "Does carbon intensity constraint policy improve industrial green production performance in China? A quasi-DID analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 271-282.
    15. Li, Ke & Yuan, Weihong & Li, Jianglong & Ai, Hongshan, 2021. "Effects of time-dependent environmental regulations on air pollution: Evidence from the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan region, China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    16. Song, Malin & Du, Juntao & Tan, Kim Hua, 2018. "Impact of fiscal decentralization on green total factor productivity," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 359-367.
    17. Chen, Siyu & Guo, Chongshan & Huang, Xinfei, 2018. "Air Pollution, Student Health, and School Absences: Evidence from China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 465-497.
    18. Joshua Graff Zivin & Matthew Neidell, 2012. "The Impact of Pollution on Worker Productivity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(7), pages 3652-3673, December.
    19. van Soest, Daan P. & List, John A. & Jeppesen, Tim, 2006. "Shadow prices, environmental stringency, and international competitiveness," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(5), pages 1151-1167, July.
    20. Hongshan Ai & Shenglan Hu & Ke Li & Shuai Shao, 2020. "Environmental regulation, total factor productivity, and enterprise duration: Evidence from China," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2284-2296, September.
    21. Virgiliu Midrigan & Daniel Yi Xu, 2014. "Finance and Misallocation: Evidence from Plant-Level Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(2), pages 422-458, February.
    22. Shuai Shao & Zhigao Hu & Jianhua Cao & Lili Yang & Dabo Guan, 2020. "Environmental Regulation and Enterprise Innovation: A Review," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 1465-1478, March.
    23. Oleg Itskhoki & Benjamin Moll, 2019. "Optimal Development Policies With Financial Frictions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 87(1), pages 139-173, January.
    24. Guo, Hongye & Davidson, Michael R. & Chen, Qixin & Zhang, Da & Jiang, Nan & Xia, Qing & Kang, Chongqing & Zhang, Xiliang, 2020. "Power market reform in China: Motivations, progress, and recommendations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    25. Fernald, John G. & Spiegel, Mark M. & Swanson, Eric T., 2014. "Monetary policy effectiveness in China: Evidence from a FAVAR model," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(PA), pages 83-103.
    26. Chang-Tai Hsieh & Peter J. Klenow, 2009. "Misallocation and Manufacturing TFP in China and India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(4), pages 1403-1448.
    27. Leiter, Andrea M. & Parolini, Arno & Winner, Hannes, 2011. "Environmental regulation and investment: Evidence from European industry data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(4), pages 759-770, February.
    28. Eskeland, Gunnar S. & Harrison, Ann E., 2003. "Moving to greener pastures? Multinationals and the pollution haven hypothesis," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 1-23, February.
    29. Simon Condliffe & O. Ashton Morgan, 2009. "The effects of air quality regulations on the location decisions of pollution-intensive manufacturing plants," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 36(1), pages 83-93, August.
    30. Zhihua Tian & Yanfang Tian & Yang Chen & Shuai Shao, 2020. "The economic consequences of environmental regulation in China: From a perspective of the environmental protection admonishing talk policy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 1723-1733, May.
    31. Li, Pei & Lu, Yi & Wang, Jin, 2016. "Does flattening government improve economic performance? Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 18-37.
    32. Chen Liu & Dongmin Kong, 2021. "Business strategy and sustainable development: Evidence from China," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 657-670, January.
    33. Randy Becker & Vernon Henderson, 2000. "Effects of Air Quality Regulations on Polluting Industries," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(2), pages 379-421, April.
    34. Guojun He & Shaoda Wang & Bing Zhang, 2020. "Watering Down Environmental Regulation in China," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(4), pages 2135-2185.
    35. Vollrath, Dietrich, 2014. "The efficiency of human capital allocations in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 106-118.
    36. Yang, Zhenbing & Shao, Shuai & Yang, Lili & Miao, Zhuang, 2018. "Improvement pathway of energy consumption structure in China's industrial sector: From the perspective of directed technical change," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 166-176.
    37. Sadeghzadeh, Javad, 2014. "The impact of environmental policies on productivity and market competition," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(5), pages 548-565, October.
    38. Loren Brandt & Trevor Tombe & Xiadong Zhu, 2013. "Factor Market Distortions Across Time, Space, and Sectors in China," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(1), pages 39-58, January.
    39. James Levinsohn & Amil Petrin, 2003. "Estimating Production Functions Using Inputs to Control for Unobservables," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(2), pages 317-341.
    40. Michael Peters, 2020. "Heterogeneous Markups, Growth, and Endogenous Misallocation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(5), pages 2037-2073, September.
    41. Zhang, Xin & Zhang, Xiaobo & Chen, Xi, 2017. "Happiness in the air: How does a dirty sky affect mental health and subjective well-being?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 81-94.
    42. Wu, Haoyi & Guo, Huanxiu & Zhang, Bing & Bu, Maoliang, 2017. "Westward movement of new polluting firms in China: Pollution reduction mandates and location choice," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 119-138.
    43. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1988. "On the mechanics of economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 3-42, July.
    44. Gutiérrez, Emilio & Teshima, Kensuke, 2018. "Abatement expenditures, technology choice, and environmental performance: Evidence from firm responses to import competition in Mexico," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 264-274.
    45. Du, Kerui & Cheng, Yuanyuan & Yao, Xin, 2021. "Environmental regulation, green technology innovation, and industrial structure upgrading: The road to the green transformation of Chinese cities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    46. Liu, Mengdi & Shadbegian, Ronald & Zhang, Bing, 2017. "Does environmental regulation affect labor demand in China? Evidence from the textile printing and dyeing industry," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 277-294.
    47. Jianming Zhang & Gongqian Liang & Taiwen Feng & Chunlin Yuan & Wenbo Jiang, 2020. "Green innovation to respond to environmental regulation: How external knowledge adoption and green absorptive capacity matter?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 39-53, January.
    48. Cai, Hongbin & Chen, Yuyu & Gong, Qing, 2016. "Polluting thy neighbor: Unintended consequences of China׳s pollution reduction mandates," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 86-104.
    49. Michael Greenstone, 2002. "The Impacts of Environmental Regulations on Industrial Activity: Evidence from the 1970 and 1977 Clean Air Act Amendments and the Census of Manufactures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(6), pages 1175-1219, December.
    50. Zhang, Ning & Jiang, Xue-Feng, 2019. "The effect of environmental policy on Chinese firm's green productivity and shadow price: A metafrontier input distance function approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 129-136.
    51. Yuan Chen & Vinod Singhal & Qinghua Zhu, 2021. "Environmental policies and financial performance: stock market reaction to firms for their proactive environmental practices recognized by governmental programs," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1548-1562, May.
    52. Yi Quan & Huiying Wu & Sihai Li & Sammy Xiaoyan Ying, 2018. "Firm sustainable development and stakeholder engagement: The role of government support," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1145-1158, December.
    53. Boyan Jovanovic, 2014. "Misallocation and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(4), pages 1149-1171, April.
    54. Levinson, Arik, 1996. "Environmental regulations and manufacturers' location choices: Evidence from the Census of Manufactures," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1-2), pages 5-29, October.
    55. Shi, Xiangyu & Xi, Tianyang & Zhang, Xiaobo & Zhang, Yifan, 2021. "“Moving Umbrella”: Bureaucratic transfers and the comovement of interregional investments in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    56. Huan Dou & Antai Li & Yonggen Luo, 2021. "Innovation in Business Groups: Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(9), pages 2503-2513, July.
    57. Song, Malin & Wang, Shuhong & Sun, Jing, 2018. "Environmental regulations, staff quality, green technology, R&D efficiency, and profit in manufacturing," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 1-14.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zihao Wu & Ye Wang, 2023. "Does Heterogeneous Environmental Regulation Induce Regional Green Economic Growth? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-14, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Laiqun Jin & Xiuyan Liu & Sam Hak Kan Tang, 2021. "High-Technology Zones, Misallocation of Resources among Cities and Aggregate Productivity: Evidence from China," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 21-11, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    2. Laiqun Jin & Changwei Mo & Bochao Zhang & Bing Yu, 2018. "What Is the Focus of Structural Reform in China?—Comparison of the Factor Misallocation Degree within the Manufacturing Industry with a Unified Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-19, November.
    3. Chen, Binkai & Lin, Justin Yifu, 2021. "Development strategy, resource misallocation and economic performance," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 612-634.
    4. Shiyu Bo, 2021. "Environmental Regulations, Political Incentives and Local Economic Activities: Evidence from China," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 83(3), pages 812-835, June.
    5. Zhang, Ming & Zhao, Yingxue, 2023. "Does environmental regulation spur innovation? Quasi-natural experiment in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    6. Fu, Shihe & Viard, V. Brian & Zhang, Peng, 2022. "Trans-boundary air pollution spillovers: Physical transport and economic costs by distance," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    7. Hashiguchi, Yoshihiro, 2015. "Allocation efficiency in China : an extension of the dynamic Olley-Pakes productivity decomposition," IDE Discussion Papers 544, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    8. Chen, Lili & Guo, Shaoyu & Lu, Jian & Gerschewski, Stephan, 2021. "Outward FDI and efficiency in within-firm resource allocation – Evidence from firm-level data of China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    9. Ling-Yun He & Xiao-Feng Qi, 2021. "Resource Misallocation and Energy-Related Pollution," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-19, May.
    10. Bai, Caiquan & Liu, Hangjuan & Zhang, Rongjie & Feng, Chen, 2023. "Blessing or curse? Market-driven environmental regulation and enterprises' total factor productivity: Evidence from China's carbon market pilots," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    11. Xu Dong & Yali Yang & Xiaomeng Zhao & Yingjie Feng & Chenguang Liu, 2021. "Environmental Regulation, Resource Misallocation and Industrial Total Factor Productivity: A Spatial Empirical Study Based on China’s Provincial Panel Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.
    12. Cheng Chen & Wei Tian & Miaojie Yu, 2019. "Outward FDI and Domestic Input Distortions: Evidence from Chinese Firms," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(624), pages 3025-3057.
    13. Kirill Shakhnov, 2022. "The Allocation of Talent: Finance versus Entrepreneurship," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 46, pages 161-195, October.
    14. Shiyi Chen & Xiaoxiao Ding & Pingyi Lou & Hong Song, 2022. "New evidence of moral hazard: Environmental liability insurance and firms' environmental performance," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 89(3), pages 581-613, September.
    15. Trenczek, Jan & Wacker, Konstantin M., 2023. "Human Capital Misallocation and Output per Worker Differences: Beyond Cobb-Douglas," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1331, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    16. Wang, Qian & Zhu, Linke, 2021. "Environmental regulation, firm heterogeneity, and intra-industry reallocation," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    17. Xu Ou & Haiwei Jiang, 2023. "The Impact of Environmental Regulation on Firm Performance: Evidence from the Pulp and Paper Industry in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-18, February.
    18. Tan, Ruipeng & Xu, Mengmeng & Sun, Chuanwang, 2021. "The impacts of energy reallocation on economic output and CO2 emissions in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    19. Liu, Shasha & Yin, Shanshan & Yin, Chuan & Sheng, Yan, 2021. "Does the price of natural resources affect firms’ total factor productivity? Evidence from a natural experiment in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 37-50.
    20. Mian Yang & Yining Yuan & Fuxia Yang & Dalia Patino-Echeverri, 2021. "Effects of environmental regulation on firm entry and exit and China’s industrial productivity: a new perspective on the Porter Hypothesis," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(4), pages 915-944, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:32:y:2023:i:1:p:538-550. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.