IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v9y2017i4p571-d95351.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impacts of Environmental Regulation on Industrial Activities: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in Chinese Prefectures

Author

Listed:
  • Bin Chen

    (School of Economics, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China)

  • Yuk-shing Cheng

    (Department of Economics, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong 999077, China)

Abstract

We assess the effectiveness of China’s Two Control Zones (TCZ) policy, an environmental policy that tightens the control of acid rain and the emission of sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) in targeted areas. To identify the effect of the policy on industrial activities, we use the difference-in-differences (DID) method to study industry-level activities in China’s prefectures based on a unique firm-level data set covering the period from 1999–2009. We find that stricter environmental regulation led to a lower level of polluting industrial activities in TCZ prefectures, which was associated with more closures of polluting firms in targeted prefectures and more new polluting firms in non-targeted locations. In addition, our findings suggest that the TCZ policy had more pronounced effects in the coastal areas and became more effective after China changed its assessment criteria for the performance of local officials in the late 2000s.

Suggested Citation

  • Bin Chen & Yuk-shing Cheng, 2017. "The Impacts of Environmental Regulation on Industrial Activities: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in Chinese Prefectures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-19, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:4:p:571-:d:95351
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/4/571/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/4/571/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cai, Xiqian & Lu, Yi & Wu, Mingqin & Yu, Linhui, 2016. "Does environmental regulation drive away inbound foreign direct investment? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 73-85.
    2. Meng Yan & Zhen An, 2017. "Foreign Direct Investment and Environmental Pollution: New Evidence from China," Econometrics Letters, Bilimsel Mektuplar Organizasyonu (Scientific letters), vol. 4(1), pages 1-17.
    3. Byrne, Margaret M., 1997. "Is growth a dirty word? Pollution, abatement and endogenous growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 261-284, December.
    4. Wheeler, David, 2001. "Racing to the bottom : foreign investment and air pollution in developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2524, The World Bank.
    5. Olivier Blanchard & Andrei Shleifer, 2001. "Federalism With and Without Political Centralization: China Versus Russia," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 48(4), pages 1-8.
    6. Judith M. Dean & Mary E. Lovely & Hua Wang, 2017. "Are foreign investors attracted to weak environmental regulations? Evaluating the evidence from China," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Mary E Lovely (ed.), International Economic Integration and Domestic Performance, chapter 9, pages 155-167, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. Hering, Laura & Poncet, Sandra, 2014. "Environmental policy and exports: Evidence from Chinese cities," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 296-318.
    8. Ferrer-i-Carbonell, Ada & Gowdy, John M., 2007. "Environmental degradation and happiness," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 509-516, January.
    9. Qiang Zhang & Xujia Jiang & Dan Tong & Steven J. Davis & Hongyan Zhao & Guannan Geng & Tong Feng & Bo Zheng & Zifeng Lu & David G. Streets & Ruijing Ni & Michael Brauer & Aaron van Donkelaar & Randall, 2017. "Transboundary health impacts of transported global air pollution and international trade," Nature, Nature, vol. 543(7647), pages 705-709, March.
    10. Viard, V. Brian & Fu, Shihe, 2015. "The effect of Beijing's driving restrictions on pollution and economic activity," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 98-115.
    11. Chen Yuyu & Jin Ginger Zhe & Kumar Naresh & Shi Guang, 2012. "Gaming in Air Pollution Data? Lessons from China," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 13(3), pages 1-43, December.
    12. Shih, Victor & Adolph, Christopher & Liu, Mingxing, 2012. "Getting Ahead in the Communist Party: Explaining the Advancement of Central Committee Members in China," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 106(1), pages 166-187, February.
    13. Cropper, Maureen & Griffiths, Charles, 1994. "The Interaction of Population Growth and Environmental Quality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 250-254, May.
    14. Wu, Libo & Kaneko, Shinji & Matsuoka, Shunji, 2005. "Driving forces behind the stagnancy of China's energy-related CO2 emissions from 1996 to 1999: the relative importance of structural change, intensity change and scale change," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 319-335, February.
    15. Auffhammer, Maximilian & Carson, Richard T., 2008. "Forecasting the path of China's CO2 emissions using province-level information," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 229-247, May.
    16. 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.
    17. 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.
    18. Siqi Zheng & Matthew E. Kahn, 2013. "Understanding China's Urban Pollution Dynamics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(3), pages 731-772, September.
    19. 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.
    20. Petra Christmann & Glen Taylor, 2001. "Globalization and the Environment: Determinants of Firm Self-Regulation in China," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 32(3), pages 439-458, September.
    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. Tae Hyung Kim & Bowon Kim, 2018. "Firm’s Environmental Expenditure, R&D Intensity, and Profitability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-12, June.
    2. Weiwei Wu & Rizwan Ullah & Syed Jamal Shah, 2020. "Linking Corporate Environmental Performance to Financial Performance of Pakistani Firms: The Roles of Technological capability and Public awareness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-18, February.
    3. Yi Li & Lili Ding & Yongliang Yang, 2020. "Can the Introduction of an Environmental Target Assessment Policy Improve the TFP of Textile Enterprises? A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on the Huai River Basin in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-19, February.
    4. Yuk-shing Cheng & Man-kit Chung & Kam-pui Tsang, 2023. "Electricity Market Reforms for Energy Transition: Lessons from China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-16, January.
    5. Baogui Xin & Yongmei Qu, 2019. "Effects of Smart City Policies on Green Total Factor Productivity: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-15, July.
    6. Yituan Liu & Qihang Li & Zheng Zhang, 2022. "Do Smart Cities Restrict the Carbon Emission Intensity of Enterprises? Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-20, July.
    7. Xiaoshu Xu & Yingying Cheng & Xuechen Meng, 2022. "River Chief System, Emission Abatement, and Firms’ Profits: Evidence from China’s Polluting Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-16, March.
    8. Ruiqian Li & Ramakrishnan Ramanathan, 2018. "Impacts of Industrial Heterogeneity and Technical Innovation on the Relationship between Environmental Performance and Financial Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-25, May.
    9. Ping Guo & Jin Li & Jinsong Kuang & Yifei Zhu & Renrui Xiao & Donghao Duan & Baocong Huang, 2022. "Low-Carbon Governance, Fiscal Decentralization and Sulfur Dioxide Emissions: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment with Chinese Heavy Pollution Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-24, March.
    10. Chen, Dengke & Chen, Shiyi & Jin, Hao & Lu, Yulin, 2020. "The impact of energy regulation on energy intensity and energy structure: Firm-level evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    11. Di Chen & Yue Wang & Yang Wen & Honglin Du & Xue Tan & Lei Shi & Zhong Ma, 2021. "Does Environmental Policy Help Green Industry? Evidence from China’s Promotion of Municipal Solid Waste Sorting," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-15, March.
    12. Feng Liu & Kangning Xu & Meina Zheng, 2018. "The Effect of Environmental Regulation on Employment in China: Empirical Research Based on Individual-Level Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-23, July.
    13. Fayyaz Ahmad & Muhammad Umar Draz & Lijuan Su & Ilhan Ozturk & Abdul Rauf, 2018. "Tourism and Environmental Pollution: Evidence from the One Belt One Road Provinces of Western China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-22, September.
    14. Jiawei Wu & Yehua Dennis Wei & Qizhai Li & Feng Yuan, 2018. "Economic Transition and Changing Location of Manufacturing Industry in China: A Study of the Yangtze River Delta," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-28, July.

    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. Chen, Zhao & Kahn, Matthew E. & Liu, Yu & Wang, Zhi, 2018. "The consequences of spatially differentiated water pollution regulation in China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 468-485.
    2. Wu, Mingqin & Cao, Xun, 2021. "Greening the career incentive structure for local officials in China: Does less pollution increase the chances of promotion for Chinese local leaders?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    3. Wu, JunJie & Segerson, Kathleen & Wang, Chunhua, 2023. "Is environmental regulation the answer to pollution problems in urbanizing economies?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    4. 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.
    5. Zheng, Siqi & Kahn, Matthew E. & Liu, Hongyu, 2010. "Towards a system of open cities in China: Home prices, FDI flows and air quality in 35 major cities," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 1-10, January.
    6. 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.
    7. Guan, Jin & He, Dongwei & Zhu, Qigui, 2022. "More incentive, less pollution: The influence of official appraisal system reform on environmental enforcement," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    8. Yunyi Hu & Haitao Yin & Jon J. Moon, 2022. "Environmental regulation and foreign investment: Evidence from China," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 862-883, November.
    9. Zhang, Ming & Zhao, Yingxue, 2023. "Does environmental regulation spur innovation? Quasi-natural experiment in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    10. Longzhou Wang, 2023. "The Impact of Environmental Regulation on Firms’ Product Quality: Evidence from Chinese Exporters," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 86(3), pages 645-672, November.
    11. Sylwia Bialek & Alfons J. Weichenrieder, 2021. "Do Stringent Environmental Policies Deter FDI? M&A versus Greenfield," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 80(3), pages 603-636, November.
    12. Xu, Yuan & Wu, Yanrui & Shi, Yongli, 2021. "Emission reduction and foreign direct investment nexus in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    13. Shi, Xinzheng & Xu, Zhufeng, 2018. "Environmental regulation and firm exports: Evidence from the eleventh Five-Year Plan in China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 187-200.
    14. Chen, Ying, 2023. "Environmental regulation, local labor market, and skill heterogeneity," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    15. Zhou, Peng & Song, Frank M. & Huang, Xiaoqi, 2023. "Environmental regulations and firms' green innovations: Transforming pressure into incentives," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    16. Zheng, Jiali & Mi, Zhifu & Coffman, D'Maris & Milcheva, Stanimira & Shan, Yuli & Guan, Dabo & Wang, Shouyang, 2019. "Regional development and carbon emissions in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 25-36.
    17. Yanyun Li & Faqin Lin & Wenxiao Wang, 2022. "Environmental regulation and inward foreign direct investment: Evidence from the eleventh Five‐Year Plan in China," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(3), pages 684-707, July.
    18. Brucal, Arlan & Javorcik, Beata & Love, Inessa, 2019. "Good for the environment, good for business: Foreign acquisitions and energy intensity," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    19. Dong, Yan & Tian, Jinhuan & Wen, Qiang, 2022. "Environmental regulation and outward foreign direct investment: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    20. Mao, Jie & Wang, Chunhua & Yin, Haitao, 2023. "Corporate responses to air quality regulation: Evidence from a regional environmental policy in China," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).

    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:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:4:p:571-:d:95351. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.