IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i3p1942-d1041589.html

Will the “Pairing Assistance” Policy Trigger the Migration of Polluting Enterprises? An Empirical Study Based on the Yangtze River Delta Region

Author

Listed:
  • Bingquan Lin

    (Department of Economics and Management, Jiangsu College of Administration, Nanjing 210009, China
    School of Urban and Regional Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China)

  • Junsong Wang

    (School of Urban and Regional Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China)

Abstract

The migration of polluting enterprises and its mechanism are a recent research hotspot in enterprise geography and environmental economic geography. This paper finds that the “Pairing Assistance” policy (PAP) is an important driving force for the migration of polluting enterprises (MPE), which is widely ignored by the existing research. Based on the perspective of inter-regional correlations, this paper establishes an analytical framework for the MPE. The negative binomial regression model was used to conduct a big data analysis on enterprises based on the Qichacha database. The main findings are as follows. (1) The average number of polluting enterprises migrating between cities with a PAP relationship is 129.51% more than that between other cities. (2) This policy can also promote the MPE from cities that are not in a PAP relationship with cities that receive assistance from the policy. The average frequency of these cities accepting polluting enterprises was 63.76% more than that of other cities. (3) Heterogeneity analysis shows that under the influence of the policy, highly polluting and low-tech enterprises mainly migrated from developed regions to less-developed regions. (4) The mechanism mainly includes lower environmental regulations, operating costs, inter-regional differences in industrial upgrading, and the easiness for polluting enterprises to adapt into the network of government–enterprise relationships in the assistance-accepting cities. This paper, based on China’s empirical research, provides a new mechanism for the migration of polluting enterprises.

Suggested Citation

  • Bingquan Lin & Junsong Wang, 2023. "Will the “Pairing Assistance” Policy Trigger the Migration of Polluting Enterprises? An Empirical Study Based on the Yangtze River Delta Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-19, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:3:p:1942-:d:1041589
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/3/1942/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/3/1942/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shoujun Lyu & Xingchi Shen & Yujie Bi, 2020. "The Dually Negative Effect of Industrial Polluting Enterprises on China’s Air Pollution: A Provincial Panel Data Analysis Based on Environmental Regulation Theory," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-16, October.
    2. Rijal, Binish & Khanna, Neha, 2020. "High priority violations and intra-firm pollution substitution," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    3. Matthew Panhans & Lucia Lavric & Nick Hanley, 2017. "The Effects of Electricity Costs on Firm Re-location Decisions: Insights for the Pollution Havens Hypothesis?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 68(4), pages 893-914, December.
    4. Jianhua Zhang & Xiaoqing Li & Hung‐Gay Fung & Penghua Qiao, 2019. "Do Political Connections Promote Innovation in Environmentally Polluting Enterprises?," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 27(3), pages 76-101, May.
    5. Matthew Gibson, 2019. "Regulation-Induced Pollution Substitution," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(5), pages 827-840, December.
    6. Duan, Yuwan & Jiang, Xuemei, 2021. "Pollution haven or pollution halo? A Re-evaluation on the role of multinational enterprises in global CO2 emissions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    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. Na Zhao & Ming Zhao & Han Long & Liang Yuan, 2025. "Facing or evading? The impact of environmental taxes on the migration of heavily polluting enterprises in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(5), pages 11773-11796, May.

    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. Wenjie Luo & Xunyong Xiang, 2024. "Unsynchronised Legislation and Unintended Pollution: Estimating Regulation-Induced Substitution in China," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 87(3), pages 731-760, March.
    2. Jia, Wentao & Ma, Chunbo & Wang, Xiao & Xie, Rui, 2025. "Intra-firm pollution leakage and redistribution of pollution exposure: Evidence from coal-regulated plants in China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    3. Glen Dowell & Thomas Lyon, 2024. "Beliefs Matter: Local Climate Concerns and Industrial Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the United States," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 194(3), pages 609-632, October.
    4. Chen, ShiYi & Liang, EnDong & Liu, ChaoLiang, 2025. "“Size-dependent” environmental regulations and spatial labor allocation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    5. Ke Zhang & Xingwei Wang, 2021. "Pollution Haven Hypothesis of Global CO 2 , SO 2 , NO x —Evidence from 43 Economies and 56 Sectors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-27, June.
    6. Doytch, Nadia & Elheddad, Mohamed & Perez-Sebastian, Fidel, 2025. "New climate policy, resource abundance, and sectoral FDI," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    7. Yu-Hong Ai & Di-Yun Peng & Huan-Huan Xiong, 2021. "Impact of Environmental Regulation Intensity on Green Technology Innovation: From the Perspective of Political and Business Connections," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-23, April.
    8. Kerui Du & Qilin Huang & Presley K. Wesseh, 2025. "Domestic Pollution Havens: Linking Interregional Capital Flight and Water Pollution Regulation in China," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 88(1), pages 125-161, January.
    9. Yuhan Jing & Mingzhao Hu & Lingdi Zhao, 2023. "The effect of heterogeneous environmental regulations on the employment skill structure: The system-GMM approach and mediation model," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(8), pages 1-33, August.
    10. Golpîra, Hêriş, 2020. "Smart Energy-Aware Manufacturing Plant Scheduling under Uncertainty: A Risk-Based Multi-Objective Robust Optimization Approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    11. Chen, Fuzhong & Luo, Ke & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad, 2025. "How does upstream service liberalization benefit downstream manufacturing firms’ emissions reduction performance?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    12. Qi Wang & Mengdi Liu & Fan Xia & Dianyu Zhu & Bing Zhang, 2025. "Action Where Others Stalled: Long-Term Implications of Campaign-Style Central Environmental Inspection," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 88(12), pages 3689-3736, December.
    13. Campbell, Jason & Levkoff, Steven, 2025. "Assessing the productivity and abatement effects of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendment," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(1).
    14. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/6m5kss847r91no96hiublu6anu is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Qin, Quande & Yu, Ying & Liu, Yuan & Zhou, Jianqing & Chen, Xiude, 2023. "Industrial agglomeration and energy efficiency: A new perspective from market integration," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    16. Tom Schmitz & Italo Colantone & Gianmarco Ottaviano, 2024. "Regional and Aggregate Economic Consequences of Environmental Policy," Working Papers 2024.10, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    17. Yong Geng & Wei Liu & Hanshu Chen & Xinyu Zou, 2023. "The Spillover Effects of Environmental Regulations: A Perspective of Chinese Unregulated Firms' Tax Burden," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 31(2), pages 84-111, March.
    18. Nie, Ling & Zhang, ZhongXiang, "undated". "Is high-speed rail green? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," FEEM Working Papers 314095, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    19. Dietrich Earnhart & Nathan P. Hendricks, 2023. "Adapting to water restrictions: Intensive versus extensive adaptation over time differentiated by water right seniority," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(5), pages 1458-1490, October.
    20. Curtis, E. Mark, 2020. "Reevaluating the ozone nonattainment standards: Evidence from the 2004 expansion," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    21. Tom Schmitz & Italo Colantone & Gianmarco Ottaviano, 2024. "Regional and Aggregate Economic Consequences of Environmental Policy Abstract: This paper shows how to combine microeconometric evidence on the effects of environmental policy with a macroeconomic model, accounting for general equilibrium spillovers ," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 24225, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:3:p:1942-:d:1041589. 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.