IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v41y2009i11p2706-2723.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Changes in Enforcement Styles among Environmental Enforcement Officials in China

Author

Listed:
  • Carlos Wing-Hung Lo

    (Department of Management and Marketing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Horn, Kowloon, Hong Kong)

  • Gerald E Fryxell

    (Department of Management, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), 699 Hongfeng Road, Pudong 201206, Shanghai, PRC)

  • Benjamin Van Rooij

    (School of Law, Amsterdam University, Oudemanhuispoort 4-6, 1012 CN Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Abstract

This study examines changes in enforcement styles among environmental enforcement officials in the context of China's rapidly changing institutional environments, using panel data collected in Guangzhou in 2000 and 2006. Altogether, five enforcement style elements were examined—accommodation, prioritization, educational, formalism, and coercion. It was found that in 2006 respondents reported greater reliance on education, formalism, and coercion than in 2000. During the same period 2000–06, no significant changes were found for the enforcement styles of accommodation and prioritization or in the respondents' perceptions of their organization's enforcement effectiveness. From regression models in which enforcement styles were used to predict perceived organizational enforcement effectiveness, it was observed that the coefficient for formalism had changed substantially over this period, from being significantly negative to significantly positive, which may be evidence of a general shift from ‘rule by man’ to ‘rule by law’ in China. This study has benefited from the concept of regulatory enforcement style elements, as it allows for an empirical understanding of regulatory enforcement beyond the common and normative dichotomy of deterrence versus cooperation.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlos Wing-Hung Lo & Gerald E Fryxell & Benjamin Van Rooij, 2009. "Changes in Enforcement Styles among Environmental Enforcement Officials in China," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 41(11), pages 2706-2723, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:41:y:2009:i:11:p:2706-2723
    DOI: 10.1068/a41357
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a41357
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a41357?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. Hua Wang & Nlandu Mamingi & Benoit Laplante & Susmita Dasgupta, 2003. "Incomplete Enforcement of Pollution Regulation: Bargaining Power of Chinese Factories," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 24(3), pages 245-262, March.
    2. PeterJ May & Søren Winter, 1999. "Regulatory enforcement and compliance: Examining Danish agro-environmental policy," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(4), pages 625-651.
    3. Carlos Wing-Hung Lo & Gerald Erick Fryxell, 2005. "Governmental and Societal Support for Environmental Enforcement in China: An Empirical Study in Guangzhou," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(4), pages 558-588.
    4. Wood, B. Dan & Waterman, Richard W., 1991. "The Dynamics of Political Control of the Bureaucracy," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 85(3), pages 801-828, September.
    5. Dasgupta, Susmita & Wheeler, David, 1997. "Citizen complaints as environmental indicators : evidence from China," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1704, The World Bank.
    6. Dasgupta, Susmita & Laplante, Benoit & Namingi, Nlandu & Hua Wang, 2000. "Industrial environmental performance in China - the impact of inspections," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2285, The World Bank.
    7. Peter Ho, 2001. "Greening Without Conflict? Environmentalism, NGOs and Civil Society in China," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 893-921, November.
    8. Hua Wang & Wheeler, David, 2000. "Endogenous enforcement and effectiveness of China's pollution levy system," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2336, The World Bank.
    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. Jay P. Shimshack, 2014. "The Economics of Environmental Monitoring and Enforcement," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 339-360, October.
    2. Gupta, Shreekant & Saksena, Shalini & Baris, Omer F., 2019. "Environmental enforcement and compliance in developing countries: Evidence from India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 313-327.

    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. Benjamin Van Rooij & Gerald E. Fryxell & Carlos Wing‐Hung Lo & Wei Wang, 2013. "From support to pressure: The dynamics of social and governmental influences on environmental law enforcement in Guangzhou City, China," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(3), pages 321-347, September.
    2. Hua Wang & Yanhong Jin, 2007. "Industrial Ownership and Environmental Performance: Evidence from China," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 36(3), pages 255-273, March.
    3. Hua Wang, 2000. "Pollution charges, community pressure, and abatement cost of industrial pollution in China," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2337, The World Bank.
    4. Carlos Wing-Hung Lo & Gerald Erick Fryxell, 2005. "Governmental and Societal Support for Environmental Enforcement in China: An Empirical Study in Guangzhou," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(4), pages 558-588.
    5. Hang XIONG & Chloé DUVIVIER, 2011. "Transboundary Pollution in China: A Study of Polluting Firms' Location Choices in Hebei Province," Working Papers 201117, CERDI.
    6. Dasgupta, Susmita & Laplante, Benoit & Namingi, Nlandu & Hua Wang, 2000. "Industrial environmental performance in China - the impact of inspections," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2285, The World Bank.
    7. Lan, Jing & Munro, Alistair, 2013. "Environmental compliance and human capital: Evidence from Chinese industrial firms," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 534-557.
    8. Wang, Hua & Wheeler, David, 2005. "Financial incentives and endogenous enforcement in China's pollution levy system," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 174-196, January.
    9. Jodi L. Short, 2021. "The politics of regulatory enforcement and compliance: Theorizing and operationalizing political influences," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(3), pages 653-685, July.
    10. Cole, Matthew A. & Elliott, Robert J.R. & Wu, Shanshan, 2008. "Industrial activity and the environment in China: An industry-level analysis," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 393-408, September.
    11. Yinger Zheng & Haixia Zheng & Xinyue Ye, 2016. "Using Machine Learning in Environmental Tax Reform Assessment for Sustainable Development: A Case Study of Hubei Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-20, November.
    12. Wang, Hua & Jin, Yanhong H., 2002. "Ownership And Industrial Pollution Control: Evidence From China," 2002 Annual meeting, July 28-31, Long Beach, CA 19671, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    13. Xiuyun Yang & Peter Ho, 2018. "Conflict over Mining in Rural China: A Comprehensive Survey of Intentions and Strategies for Environmental Activism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-18, May.
    14. Zifang Ding & Xiang Gao & Xuesong Qian & Huanhuan Wang, 2022. "Governmental inspection and local legislation on environmental protection: Evidence from China," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(3), pages 728-763, July.
    15. Zhuang Miao & Tomas Baležentis & Zhihua Tian & Shuai Shao & Yong Geng & Rui Wu, 2019. "Environmental Performance and Regulation Effect of China’s Atmospheric Pollutant Emissions: Evidence from “Three Regions and Ten Urban Agglomerations”," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 74(1), pages 211-242, September.
    16. Nicolai PETROVSKY, 2011. "Measuring The Performance Of Federal Agencies And Programs In The Usa: An Overview And Some Reflections," Proceedings of Administration and Public Management International Conference, Research Centre in Public Administration and Public Services, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 7(1), pages 17-26, June.
    17. Lei Liu & Yue Xu & Zhaotian Yang & Ying Li, 2023. "The interrelationship between environmental NGO development and environmental condition in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(8), pages 8487-8516, August.
    18. Karen Maguire, 2013. "Drill Baby Drill? Political and Market Influences on Federal Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing in the Western United States," Economics Working Paper Series 1401, Oklahoma State University, Department of Economics and Legal Studies in Business, revised Apr 2013.
    19. Xiao Tang & Weiwei Chen & Tian Wu, 2018. "Do Authoritarian Governments Respond to Public Opinion on the Environment? Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-15, February.
    20. Mathilde Maurel & Thomas Pernet & Zhao Ruili, 2019. "Financial Dependencies, Environmental Regulation and Pollution Intensity: Evidence From China," Post-Print halshs-02423350, HAL.

    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:sae:envira:v:41:y:2009:i:11:p:2706-2723. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.