IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ecogov/v19y2018i3d10.1007_s10101-018-0209-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does the establishment of the Ministry of Environmental Protection matter for addressing China’s pollution problems? Empirical evidence from listed companies

Author

Listed:
  • Guangdong Xu

    (China University of Political Science and Law)

  • Wenming Xu

    (China University of Political Science and Law)

  • Shudan Xu

    (China University of Political Science and Law)

Abstract

This paper uses an event study methodology to examine the stock price reactions of polluting companies traded on stock exchanges in mainland China to an exogenous environmental event, i.e., the establishment of the Ministry of Environmental Protection in 2008, which demonstrates the Chinese government’s ambition to enforce environmental protection rules more strictly. We find that, on average, these listed companies experienced a statistically and economically significant abnormal return (AR) of − 3.6% on the event date, indicating an anticipation that these companies would face a harsher regulatory environment as a result of the administrative reform. The market apparently placed great expectations on the administrative reform in regard to addressing China’s environmental pollution problems. In addition, we find that compared to their counterparts in the private sector, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) experienced a smaller price decline during the event window, which suggests that SOEs are more likely to enjoy favourable treatment from regulatory agencies. Our empirical evidence, therefore, shows that the selective enforcement of environmental law is a significant concern that tends to undermine the effects of such reforms.

Suggested Citation

  • Guangdong Xu & Wenming Xu & Shudan Xu, 2018. "Does the establishment of the Ministry of Environmental Protection matter for addressing China’s pollution problems? Empirical evidence from listed companies," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 195-224, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ecogov:v:19:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1007_s10101-018-0209-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s10101-018-0209-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10101-018-0209-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10101-018-0209-0?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Stefan Ambec & Mark A. Cohen & Stewart Elgie & Paul Lanoie, 2013. "The Porter Hypothesis at 20: Can Environmental Regulation Enhance Innovation and Competitiveness?," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 7(1), pages 2-22, January.
    3. Chunlai Chen, 2011. "Foreign Direct Investment in China," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14100.
    4. Grossman, G.M & Krueger, A.B., 1991. "Environmental Impacts of a North American Free Trade Agreement," Papers 158, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Public and International Affairs.
    5. Jonah B. Gelbach & Eric Helland & Jonathan Klick, 2013. "Valid Inference in Single-Firm, Single-Event Studies," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 15(2), pages 495-541.
    6. Gene M. Grossman & Alan B. Krueger, 1995. "Economic Growth and the Environment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(2), pages 353-377.
    7. 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.
    8. Kostka, Genia, 2014. "Barriers to the implementation of environmental policies at the local level in China," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7016, The World Bank.
    9. Long, Cheryl & Yang, Jin & Zhang, Jing, 2015. "Institutional Impact of Foreign Direct Investment in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 31-48.
    10. Du, Limin & Wei, Chu & Cai, Shenghua, 2012. "Economic development and carbon dioxide emissions in China: Provincial panel data analysis," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 371-384.
    11. Wang, Hua & Wheeler, David, 2003. "Equilibrium pollution and economic development in China," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 451-466, July.
    12. Jiang, Liangliang & Lin, Chen & Lin, Ping, 2014. "The determinants of pollution levels: Firm-level evidence from Chinese manufacturing," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 118-142.
    13. X. Xu & S. Zeng & C. Tam, 2012. "Stock Market’s Reaction to Disclosure of Environmental Violations: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(2), pages 227-237, May.
    14. Bao, Qun & Chen, Yuanyuan & Song, Ligang, 2011. "Foreign direct investment and environmental pollution in China: a simultaneous equations estimation," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(1), pages 71-92, February.
    15. Canfei He & Fenghua Pan & Yan Yan, 2012. "Is Economic Transition Harmful to China’s Urban Environment? Evidence from Industrial Air Pollution in Chinese Cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(8), pages 1767-1790, June.
    16. Jing Wu & Yongheng Deng & Jun Huang & Randall Morck & Bernard Yeung, 2013. "Incentives and Outcomes: China's Environmental Policy," NBER Working Papers 18754, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. World Bank, 2009. "Strengthening China's Environmental Protection Administrative System : Analysis and Recommendations," World Bank Publications - Reports 12323, The World Bank Group.
    18. Atanasov, Vladimir & Black, Bernard, 2016. "Shock-Based Causal Inference in Corporate Finance and Accounting Research," Critical Finance Review, now publishers, vol. 5(2), pages 207-304, December.
    19. A. Craig MacKinlay, 1997. "Event Studies in Economics and Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(1), pages 13-39, March.
    20. Ho, Daniel E. & Imai, Kosuke & King, Gary & Stuart, Elizabeth A., 2007. "Matching as Nonparametric Preprocessing for Reducing Model Dependence in Parametric Causal Inference," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(3), pages 199-236, July.
    21. Hua Wang & Wheeler, David, 1996. "Pricing industrial pollution in China : an econometric analysis of the levy system," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1644, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. 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.
    2. Min Maung & Craig Wilson & Xiaobo Tang, 2016. "Political Connections and Industrial Pollution: Evidence Based on State Ownership and Environmental Levies in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 138(4), pages 649-659, November.
    3. Xu, Wenming & Xu, Guangdong, 2020. "Understanding public enforcement of securities law in China: An empirical analysis of the enforcement actions of the CSRC and its regional offices against informational misconduct," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    4. Sapkota, Pratikshya & Bastola, Umesh, 2017. "Foreign direct investment, income, and environmental pollution in developing countries: Panel data analysis of Latin America," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 206-212.
    5. Cheng, Jinhua & Dai, Sheng & Ye, Xinyue, 2016. "Spatiotemporal heterogeneity of industrial pollution in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 179-191.
    6. Mathilde Maurel & Thomas Pernet, 2021. "New evidence on the soft budget constraint: Chinese environmental policy effectiveness in SOE-dominated cities," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 187(1), pages 111-142, April.
    7. Pasquale Pazienza & Caterina Lucia, 2020. "How does FDI in the “agricultural and fishing” sector affect methane emission? Evidence from the OECD countries," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 37(2), pages 441-462, July.
    8. Mathilde Maurel & Thomas Pernet-Coudrier, 2020. "New Evidence on the Soft Budget Constraint: Chinese Environmental Policy Effectiveness in Private versus SOEs," Post-Print halshs-02469382, HAL.
    9. Liu, Liyun & Zhao, Zhenzhi & Su, Bin & Ng, Tsan Sheng & Zhang, Mingming & Qi, Lin, 2021. "Structural breakpoints in the relationship between outward foreign direct investment and green innovation: An empirical study in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    10. He, Jie & Wang, Hua, 2012. "Economic structure, development policy and environmental quality: An empirical analysis of environmental Kuznets curves with Chinese municipal data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 49-59.
    11. James Roumasset & Kimberly Burnett & Hua Wang, 2007. "Is China’s Growth Sustainable?," Working Papers 200723, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    12. Ankai Xu, 2016. "Environmental regulations and competitiveness: evidence based on Chinese firm data," CIES Research Paper series 47-2016, Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute.
    13. Andersson, Fredrik N.G. & Opper, Sonja & Khalid, Usman, 2018. "Are capitalists green? Firm ownership and provincial CO2 emissions in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 349-359.
    14. Sam, Abdoul G. & Zhang, Xiaodong, 2020. "Value relevance of the new environmental enforcement regime in China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    15. Lutao Ning & Fan Wang, 2018. "Does FDI Bring Environmental Knowledge Spillovers to Developing Countries? The Role of the Local Industrial Structure," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 71(2), pages 381-405, October.
    16. Mathilde Maurel & Thomas Pernet & Zhao Ruili, 2019. "Financial Dependencies, Environmental Regulation and Pollution Intensity: Evidence From China," Post-Print halshs-02423350, HAL.
    17. Nan, Shijing & Huo, Yuchen & You, Wanhai & Guo, Yawei, 2022. "Globalization spatial spillover effects and carbon emissions: What is the role of economic complexity?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    18. Aldieri, Luigi & Bruno, Bruna & Makkonen, Teemu & Vinci, Concetto Paolo, 2023. "Environmental innovations, geographically mediated knowledge spillovers, economic and environmental performance," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    19. Jie HE, 2005. "Economic Determinants for China’s Industrial SO2 Emission: Reduced vs. Structural form and the role of international trade," Working Papers 200505, CERDI.
    20. Pedro Naso & Yi Huang Author Name: Tim Swanson, 2017. "The Porter Hypothesis Goes to China: Spatial Development, Environmental Regulation and Productivity," CIES Research Paper series 53-2017, Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute.

    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:spr:ecogov:v:19:y:2018:i:3:d:10.1007_s10101-018-0209-0. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.