IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/kyklos/v75y2022i2p337-361.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are environmental problems a barometer of corruption in the eyes of residents? Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Guoyao Yan
  • Yu Hao
  • Yunxia Guo
  • Haitao Wu

Abstract

Actual environmental pollution will worsen people's perception of environmental problems, which may affect people's perception of government corruption, and thus affect the governments' credibility and social stability. From the micro perspective of residents' comprehensive feelings on environmental issues, this paper uses panel data for the period 2014–2018 obtained from a large‐scale dynamics survey in China to investigate the impact of environmental issues on corruption perception. The empirical results suggest that residents' perception of environmental problems has a significantly positive linear correlation with their corruption perception. Moreover, the causal explanation of this correlation is strengthened after the introduction of exogenous environmental condition variables that profoundly affect residents' environmental perception and after mitigating endogenous bias via the instrumental variable method. The findings of this study deeply reveal the political value of environmental governance, suggesting that the deterioration of environmental problems can increase public perception of government corruption, and this relationship is distinct in different demographic groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Guoyao Yan & Yu Hao & Yunxia Guo & Haitao Wu, 2022. "Are environmental problems a barometer of corruption in the eyes of residents? Evidence from China," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(2), pages 337-361, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:kyklos:v:75:y:2022:i:2:p:337-361
    DOI: 10.1111/kykl.12293
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/kykl.12293
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/kykl.12293?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. K. William Kapp, 1970. "Environmental Disruption And Social Costs: A Challenge To Economics," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(4), pages 833-848, November.
    2. Reinikka, Ritva & Svensson, Jakob, 2004. "The power of information : evidence from a newspaper campaign to reduce capture," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3239, The World Bank.
    3. Naci Mocan, 2008. "What Determines Corruption? International Evidence From Microdata," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 46(4), pages 493-510, October.
    4. Xu Xu & Kevin Sylwester, 2016. "Environmental Quality and International Migration," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(1), pages 157-180, February.
    5. Newey, Whitney K., 1987. "Efficient estimation of limited dependent variable models with endogenous explanatory variables," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 231-250, November.
    6. Bao-yu Bai & Xiao-xiao Liu & Yu Kou, 2014. "Belief in a Just World Lowers Perceived Intention of Corruption: The Mediating Role of Perceived Punishment," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(5), pages 1-6, May.
    7. Xuyun Tan & Li Liu & Zhenwei Huang & Xian Zhao & Wenwen Zheng, 2016. "The Dampening Effect of Social Dominance Orientation on Awareness of Corruption: Moral Outrage as a Mediator," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 125(1), pages 89-102, January.
    8. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, April.
    9. repec:bla:kyklos:v:23:y:1970:i:4:p:833-48 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Marcelo J. Moreira, 2003. "A Conditional Likelihood Ratio Test for Structural Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(4), pages 1027-1048, July.
    11. Fisman, Raymond & Gatti, Roberta, 2002. "Decentralization and corruption: evidence across countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(3), pages 325-345, March.
    12. Lessmann, Christian & Markwardt, Gunther, 2010. "One Size Fits All? Decentralization, Corruption, and the Monitoring of Bureaucrats," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 631-646, April.
    13. Hideki Toya & Mark Skidmore, 2014. "Do Natural Disasters Enhance Societal Trust?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(2), pages 255-279, May.
    14. Gutmann, Jerg & Padovano, Fabio & Voigt, Stefan, 2020. "Perception vs. experience: Explaining differences in corruption measures using microdata," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    15. Steven F. Brown & Joshua Shackman, 2007. "Corruption and Related Socioeconomic Factors: A Time Series Study," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 319-347, August.
    16. Bratton, Michael & Mattes, Robert, 2001. "Support for Democracy in Africa: Intrinsic or Instrumental?," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(3), pages 447-474, July.
    17. Yiannis Kountouris & Kyriaki Remoundou, 2016. "Cultural Influence on Preferences and Attitudes for Environmental Quality," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(2), pages 369-397, May.
    18. Athanasios Lapatinas & Anastasia Litina & Eftichios Sophocles Sartzetakis, 2019. "Environmental projects in the presence of corruption," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 26(1), pages 103-144, February.
    19. Jack McCann & Roger Holt, 2009. "Ethical Leadership and Organizations: An Analysis of Leadership in the Manufacturing Industry Based on the Perceived Leadership Integrity Scale," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(2), pages 211-220, June.
    20. Zheng, Siqi & Kahn, Matthew E. & Sun, Weizeng & Luo, Danglun, 2014. "Incentives for China's urban mayors to mitigate pollution externalities: The role of the central government and public environmentalism," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 61-71.
    21. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    22. Olken, Benjamin A., 2009. "Corruption perceptions vs. corruption reality," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(7-8), pages 950-964, August.
    23. Hao, Yu & Guo, Yunxia & Guo, Yitong & Wu, Haitao & Ren, Siyu, 2020. "Does outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) affect the home country’s environmental quality? The case of China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 109-119.
    24. Frank Kleibergen, 2005. "Testing Parameters in GMM Without Assuming that They Are Identified," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 73(4), pages 1103-1123, July.
    25. Frank Kleibergen, 2002. "Pivotal Statistics for Testing Structural Parameters in Instrumental Variables Regression," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(5), pages 1781-1803, September.
    26. Ruth Aguilera & Abhijeet Vadera, 2008. "The Dark Side of Authority: Antecedents, Mechanisms, and Outcomes of Organizational Corruption," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 77(4), pages 431-449, February.
    27. Lopez, Ramon & Mitra, Siddhartha, 2000. "Corruption, Pollution, and the Kuznets Environment Curve," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 137-150, September.
    28. Arminen, Heli & Menegaki, Angeliki N., 2019. "Corruption, climate and the energy-environment-growth nexus," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 621-634.
    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. Jiaxian Shi & Changbin Qi & Xinxin Mu, 2023. "Accelerating the Construction of a Unified Domestic Market to Promote Sustainable Economic Development: Mechanisms, Challenges and Countermeasures—A Perspective Based on the General Law of the Market ," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-16, May.
    2. Luo, Shiyue & Yu, Mengyao & Dong, Yilan & Hao, Yu & Li, Changping & Wu, Haitao, 2024. "Toward urban high-quality development: Evidence from more intelligent Chinese cities," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).

    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. Leandro M. Magnusson, 2010. "Inference in limited dependent variable models robust to weak identification," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 13(3), pages 56-79, October.
    2. Frank Kleibergen, 2004. "Expansions of GMM statistics that indicate their properties under weak and/or many instruments and the bootstrap," Econometric Society 2004 North American Summer Meetings 408, Econometric Society.
    3. Roberto Dell’Anno & Désirée Teobaldelli, 2015. "Keeping both corruption and the shadow economy in check: the role of decentralization," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(1), pages 1-40, February.
    4. Sophocles Mavroeidis & Mikkel Plagborg-Møller & James H. Stock, 2014. "Empirical Evidence on Inflation Expectations in the New Keynesian Phillips Curve," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(1), pages 124-188, March.
    5. Manuel Denzer & Constantin Weiser, 2021. "Beyond F-statistic - A General Approach for Assessing Weak Identification," Working Papers 2107, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    6. Leandro M. Magnusson & Sophocles Mavroeidis, 2010. "Identification-Robust Minimum Distance Estimation of the New Keynesian Phillips Curve," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(2-3), pages 465-481, March.
    7. Murray Michael P., 2017. "Linear Model IV Estimation When Instruments Are Many or Weak," Journal of Econometric Methods, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 1-22, January.
    8. Abhijit Banerjee & Rema Hanna, 2012. "Corruption [The Handbook of Organizational Economics]," Introductory Chapters,, Princeton University Press.
      • Hanna, Rema N. & Mullainathan, Sendhil & Banerjee, Abhijit, 2012. "Corruption," Scholarly Articles 8830779, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
      • Banerjee, Abhijit & Hanna, Rema & Mullainathan, Sendhil, 2012. "Corruption," Working Paper Series rwp12-023, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
      • Abhijit Banerjee & Rema Hanna & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2012. "Corruption," Working Papers id:4952, eSocialSciences.
      • Abhijit Banerjee & Sendhil Mullainathan & Rema Hanna, 2012. "Corruption," NBER Working Papers 17968, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Leandro M. Magnusson, 2008. "Tests in Censored Models when the Structural Parameters Are Not Identified," Working Papers 0802, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    10. repec:bla:ecorec:v:91:y:2015:i::p:1-24 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Alastair R. Hall, 2015. "Econometricians Have Their Moments: GMM at 32," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 91(S1), pages 1-24, June.
    12. Kleibergen, Frank, 2007. "Generalizing weak instrument robust IV statistics towards multiple parameters, unrestricted covariance matrices and identification statistics," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 181-216, July.
    13. Doko Tchatoka, Firmin Sabro, 2012. "Specification Tests with Weak and Invalid Instruments," MPRA Paper 40185, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Antoine, Bertille & Lavergne, Pascal, 2023. "Identification-robust nonparametric inference in a linear IV model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(1), pages 1-24.
    15. A. Belloni & D. Chen & V. Chernozhukov & C. Hansen, 2012. "Sparse Models and Methods for Optimal Instruments With an Application to Eminent Domain," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 80(6), pages 2369-2429, November.
    16. Jean-Thomas Bernard & Ba Chu & Lynda Khalaf & Marcel Voia, 2019. "Non-Standard Confidence Sets for Ratios and Tipping Points with Applications to Dynamic Panel Data," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 134, pages 79-108.
    17. Matsushita, Yukitoshi & Otsu, Taisuke, 2024. "A jackknife Lagrange multiplier test with many weak instruments," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 116392, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Isaiah Andrews & Timothy B. Armstrong, 2017. "Unbiased instrumental variables estimation under known first‐stage sign," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 8(2), pages 479-503, July.
    19. Russell Davidson & Victoria Zinde‐Walsh, 2017. "Advances in specification testing," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 50(5), pages 1595-1631, December.
    20. Marcelo Moreira & Geert Ridder, 2019. "Efficiency loss of asymptotically efficient tests in an instrumental variables regression," CeMMAP working papers CWP03/19, Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    21. Jean-Marie Dufour, 2003. "Identification, weak instruments, and statistical inference in econometrics," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 36(4), pages 767-808, November.

    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:kyklos:v:75:y:2022:i:2:p:337-361. 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://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0023-5962 .

    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.