IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v118y2023ics0140988322006223.html

Does environmental pollution liability insurance promote environmental performance? Firm-level evidence from quasi-natural experiment in China

Author

Listed:
  • Zhu, Dandan
  • Chen, Ke
  • Sun, Chuanwang
  • Lyu, Chaofeng

Abstract

Taking China's environmental pollution liability insurance (EPLI) in 2008 as a quasi-natural experiment and using extensive panel data from the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Pollution Database (1998–2014) and Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database (1998–2013), this paper identifies the implementation effects of EPLI on emission reduction by employing the method of time-varying difference-in-differences. Results demonstrate that market-based environmental regulation has significantly promoted all types of industrial firms' emission reduction, except collective enterprises. EPLI, as a market-based environmental regulation, owns more flexible mechanisms to stimulate firms to reduce emissions, including reducing the usage of coal and oil and increasing the quantity of emission treatment facilities and investment. This paper provides empirical evidence to support the usage of EPLI in improving environmental performance, which not only comprehensively evaluates China's market-based tool but also provides treasures experience for the environmental management of developing countries on a firm level.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhu, Dandan & Chen, Ke & Sun, Chuanwang & Lyu, Chaofeng, 2023. "Does environmental pollution liability insurance promote environmental performance? Firm-level evidence from quasi-natural experiment in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:118:y:2023:i:c:s0140988322006223
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2022.106493
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988322006223
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2022.106493?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lin, Boqiang & Du, Zhili, 2017. "Can urban rail transit curb automobile energy consumption?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 120-127.
    2. Zhang, Bing & Chen, Xiaolan & Guo, Huanxiu, 2018. "Does central supervision enhance local environmental enforcement? Quasi-experimental evidence from China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 70-90.
    3. Merrifield, John, 2002. "A general equilibrium analysis of the insurance bonding approach to pollution threats," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 103-115, January.
    4. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier D'Haultfœuille, 2020. "Two-Way Fixed Effects Estimators with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(9), pages 2964-2996, September.
    5. James J. Heckman & Hidehiko Ichimura & Petra E. Todd, 1997. "Matching As An Econometric Evaluation Estimator: Evidence from Evaluating a Job Training Programme," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 64(4), pages 605-654.
    6. Rory Smead & Ronald L. Sandler & Patrick Forber & John Basl, 2014. "A bargaining game analysis of international climate negotiations," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 4(6), pages 442-445, June.
    7. Yang, Xinyu & Jiang, Ping & Pan, Yao, 2020. "Does China's carbon emission trading policy have an employment double dividend and a Porter effect?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    8. Wang, Qizhen & Zhu, Yingming & Wang, Yudong, 2017. "The effects of oil shocks on export duration of China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 55-61.
    9. Michael L. Polemis, 2018. "Revisiting the Environmental Kuznets Curve: a semi-parametric analysis on the role of market structure on environmental pollution," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 27-35, March.
    10. Robert C. Feenstra & Zhiyuan Li & Miaojie Yu, 2014. "Exports and Credit Constraints under Incomplete Information: Theory and Evidence from China," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(4), pages 729-744, October.
    11. Xie, Rong-hui & Yuan, Yi-jun & Huang, Jing-jing, 2017. "Different Types of Environmental Regulations and Heterogeneous Influence on “Green” Productivity: Evidence from China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 104-112.
    12. Jessica Coria & Gunnar Köhlin & Jintao Xu, 2019. "On the Use of Market-Based Instruments to Reduce Air Pollution in Asia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-23, September.
    13. Johnstone, Nick & Managi, Shunsuke & Rodríguez, Miguel Cárdenas & Haščič, Ivan & Fujii, Hidemichi & Souchier, Martin, 2017. "Environmental policy design, innovation and efficiency gains in electricity generation," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 106-115.
    14. 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.
    15. Long, Xingle & Chen, Yaqiong & Du, Jianguo & Oh, Keunyeob & Han, Insoo, 2017. "Environmental innovation and its impact on economic and environmental performance: Evidence from Korean-owned firms in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 131-137.
    16. Wang, Han & Chen, Zhoupeng & Wu, Xingyi & Nie, Xin, 2019. "Can a carbon trading system promote the transformation of a low-carbon economy under the framework of the porter hypothesis? —Empirical analysis based on the PSM-DID method," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 930-938.
    17. Jingbo Cui & On Kit Tam & Bei Wang & Yan Zhang, 2020. "The environmental effect of trade liberalization: Evidence from China's manufacturing firms," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(12), pages 3357-3383, December.
    18. Sun, Liyang & Abraham, Sarah, 2021. "Estimating dynamic treatment effects in event studies with heterogeneous treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 175-199.
    19. Thorsten Beck & Ross Levine & Alexey Levkov, 2010. "Big Bad Banks? The Winners and Losers from Bank Deregulation in the United States," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(5), pages 1637-1667, October.
    20. Yang, Yi & Lan, Qianzi & Liu, Peijuan & Ma, Lei, 2017. "Insurance as a market mechanism in managing regional environmental and safety risks," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 62-66.
    21. Donatella Porrini & Reimund Schwarze, 2014. "Insurance models and European climate change policies: an assessment," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 7-28, August.
    22. Rory Smead & Ronald L. Sandler & Patrick Forber & John Basl, 2014. "Addendum: A bargaining game analysis of international climate negotiations," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 4(9), pages 840-840, September.
    23. 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.
    24. Alberto Abadie, 2005. "Semiparametric Difference-in-Differences Estimators," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(1), pages 1-19.
    25. Zhang, Yali & Li, Wenqi & Wu, Feng, 2020. "Does energy transition improve air quality? Evidence derived from China’s Winter Clean Heating Pilot (WCHP) project," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    26. Al-Tuwaijri, Sulaiman A. & Christensen, Theodore E. & Hughes, K. II, 2004. "The relations among environmental disclosure, environmental performance, and economic performance: a simultaneous equations approach," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(5-6), pages 447-471.
    27. Clarkson, Peter M. & Li, Yue & Richardson, Gordon D. & Vasvari, Florin P., 2008. "Revisiting the relation between environmental performance and environmental disclosure: An empirical analysis," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(4-5), pages 303-327.
    28. Zhang, Cui, 2017. "Political connections and corporate environmental responsibility: Adopting or escaping?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 539-547.
    29. Xiao, Bowen & Fan, Ying & Guo, Xiaodan, 2018. "Exploring the macroeconomic fluctuations under different environmental policies in China: A DSGE approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 439-456.
    30. Callaway, Brantly & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C., 2021. "Difference-in-Differences with multiple time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 200-230.
    31. Marco Caliendo & Sabine Kopeinig, 2008. "Some Practical Guidance For The Implementation Of Propensity Score Matching," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 31-72, February.
    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. Chaofeng Lyu & Shuxin Deng & Zewei Dai, 2023. "Emissions Trading Systems, Structure Adjustment and Air Pollution Reduction: Evidence from Enterprises in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-20, April.
    2. Luo, Yan & Jiang, Chuyu & Jun, Xiao & Zhao, Yang, 2025. "Does investment in consumer finance companies impact credit allocation of banks? Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    3. Yun Zhu & Changzheng Zhang & Teng Wang & Yijin Miao, 2024. "Corporate water risk: A new research hotspot under climate change," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(3), pages 2623-2637, June.
    4. Shih-Ting Huang & Yuqi Zhang & Tianjiao Yi & Li Zhang, 2025. "How Does the Ecological and Environmental Damage Compensation System Affect Industrial Wastewater Discharge in China?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-18, February.
    5. Guoyong Wu & Jianwei Cheng & Fan Yang & Gaozhe Chen, 2024. "Can green finance policy promote ecosystem product value realization? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-18, December.
    6. Xing, Qiuhang & Li, Mengzhe & Xu, Gaoshuang, 2024. "The impact of tax enforcement on corporate energy efficiency: Evidence from a tax collection reform in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    7. Shuxin Deng & Chaofeng Lyu, 2025. "Does return migration with government support drive county economic convergence? Evidence from migrant workers returning to hometown for entrepreneurship in China," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 23(4), pages 1433-1458, December.
    8. Gao, Feng & Lin, Yijie & Zhang, Xuanming & Li, Shanhong & Lv, Yanqin, 2023. "Interconnectedness between land resource misallocation and environmental pollution: Exploring the sustainable development potential in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(PB).
    9. Lu, Juan & Li, He & Yang, Ran, 2024. "Effects of environmental liability insurance on illegal pollutant discharge of heavy polluting enterprises: Emission reduction incentives or pollution protector?," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    10. Gong, Maoyu & Zhang, Ning, 2025. "The hidden benefit of environmental regulation: Evidence from a quasi-experiment in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    11. Wang, Hong & Hu, Xuechen & Li, Hailing, 2023. "Regional production restriction policy and firms’ green transition: Evidence from Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    12. Hao, Xiaoli & Li, Ke & Ren, Siyu & Sun, Qingyu & Hu, Weitao & Xue, Yan, 2024. "How green investment significantly relieves resource curse? A new perspective from fiscal decentralization," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    13. Thomas Barbiero & Daniele Bertolini, 2025. "Legal and Economic Determinants of Underpurchased Pollution Coverage: Lessons from Italy," Working Papers 095, Toronto Metropolitan University, Department of Economics.
    14. Cassidy, Alecia Waite & Wu, Fangjian & Zhang, Yiyuan, 2024. "Pollution liability insurance and corporate environmental compliance in China," Ruhr Economic Papers 1100, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    15. Jing Zou, 2024. "RETRACTED ARTICLE: The Relationship Between Corporate Financialization and Digital Finance in the Era of Digital Transformation," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(3), pages 13425-13448, September.
    16. Borghesi, Simone & Colivicchi, Ilaria & Iannucci, Gianluca & Tampieri, Alessandro, 2026. "Environmental insurance and resilience in the age of natural disasters," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    17. Cao, June & Li, Wenwen & Hasan, Iftekhar, 2023. "The impact of lowering carbon emissions on corporate labour investment: A quasi-natural experiment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    18. Zhou, Zhifang & Yang, Zhuoxuan & Li, Huijia & Liu, Jinhao, 2025. "Regional climate change action and corporate ESG performance - Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    19. Honglu Ma & Wei Ning & Jiyuan Wang & Shouyang Wang, 2025. "Internalising externality: the impact of environmental pollution liability insurance on the green transformation of Chinese heavy-polluting firms," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 50(2), pages 381-404, April.
    20. Qianqian Xiao & Zi’ang Chu & Changfeng Shi, 2024. "The Inter-Regional Embodied Carbon Flow Pattern in China Based on Carbon Peaking Stress," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-18, June.
    21. Xiaojuan Zhang & Yizhen Guo & Tiancheng Chi, 2025. "Navigating legal responsibilities in politically connected firms: Insights into the influence of directors' and officers' insurance on litigation risk," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 46(1), pages 545-559, January.
    22. Yucai Hu & Shaorui Du & Yukun Wang & Xinya Yang, 2023. "How Does Green Insurance Affect Green Innovation? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-15, August.
    23. Meng Cai & Riming Cui & Dan Li, 2025. "The role of imports in reducing emissions: evidence from Chinese listed companies," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 1121-1144, January.

    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. Lyu, Chaofeng & Xie, Zhe & Li, Zhi, 2022. "Market supervision, innovation offsets and energy efficiency: Evidence from environmental pollution liability insurance in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    2. Li, Daiyue & Jin, Yanhong & Cheng, Mingwang, 2024. "Unleashing the power of industrial robotics on firm productivity: Evidence from China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 500-520.
    3. Baker, Andrew C. & Larcker, David F. & Wang, Charles C.Y., 2022. "How much should we trust staggered difference-in-differences estimates?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 370-395.
    4. Schoner, Florian & Mergele, Lukas & Zierow, Larissa, 2024. "Grading student behavior," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    5. Melnik, Walter & Smyth, Andrew, 2024. "R&D tax credits and innovation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    6. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2023. "Simple approaches to nonlinear difference-in-differences with panel data," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 26(3), pages 31-66.
    7. Chabé-Ferret, Sylvain & Reynaud, Arnaud & Tène, Eva, 2021. "Water Quality, Policy Diffusion Effects and Farmers’ Behavior," TSE Working Papers 21-1229, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    8. Roth, Jonathan & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C. & Bilinski, Alyssa & Poe, John, 2023. "What’s trending in difference-in-differences? A synthesis of the recent econometrics literature," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(2), pages 2218-2244.
    9. Pengju Zhang, 2023. "The fiscal and economic impacts of municipal dissolution: evidence from New York," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(4), pages 948-1001, August.
    10. Daniela Rodrigues & Noemi Kreif & Ara Darzi & Mauricio Barahona & Erik Mayer, 2025. "Digitalization of Access to Primary Care: Is There an Equity‐Efficiency Trade‐Off?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(10), pages 1943-1962, October.
    11. Albanese, Andrea & Nieto, Adrián & Tatsiramos, Konstantinos, 2022. "Job Location Decisions and the Effect of Children on the Employment Gender Gap," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1113, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    12. Vinish Shrestha, 2025. "Revisiting the effects of cigarette taxation on smoking outcomes," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 68(3), pages 1429-1475, March.
    13. Chen, Liming & Dai, Tao & Zhang, Chen & Zhang, Zhi, 2025. "Digital government and corporate ESG performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    14. Banasaz, Mohammadmahdi & Bose, Niloy & Sedaghatkish, Nazanin, 2025. "Identification of loan effects on personal finance: A case for small U.S. entrepreneurs," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    15. Maria Luisa Maitino & Marco Mariani & Valentina Patacchini & Letizia Ravagli & Nicola Sciclone, 2024. "The Employment Effects of the Italian Minimum Guaranteed Income Scheme Reddito di Cittadinanza," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 10(2), pages 649-681, July.
    16. Dalia Ghanem & Pedro H. C. Sant'Anna & Kaspar Wüthrich, 2022. "Selection and Parallel Trends," CESifo Working Paper Series 9910, CESifo.
    17. Zhang, Yue-Jun & Wang, Wei, 2021. "How does China's carbon emissions trading (CET) policy affect the investment of CET-covered enterprises?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    18. Jia, Zhijie & Wen, Shiyan, 2024. "Interaction effects of market-based and incentive-driven low-carbon policies on carbon emissions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    19. Jin, Zhangfeng & Zhang, Junsen, 2023. "Access to local citizenship and internal migration in a developing country: Evidence from a Hukou reform in China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 181-215.
    20. Li, Yutao & Zhang, Jinning & Lyu, Yanwei, 2023. "Does telecommunications infrastructure promote entrepreneurship in developing countries? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 106-119.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:eee:eneeco:v:118:y:2023:i:c:s0140988322006223. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    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.