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Synergistic effects of environmental regulations on carbon productivity growth in China’s major industrial sectors

Author

Listed:
  • Ge Gao

    (Beijing Institute of Technology)

  • Ke Wang

    (Beijing Institute of Technology
    Sustainable Development Research Institute for Economy and Society of Beijing
    Beijing Key Lab of Energy Economics and Environmental Management)

  • Chi Zhang

    (Royal Institute of Technology)

  • Yi-Ming Wei

    (Beijing Institute of Technology
    Sustainable Development Research Institute for Economy and Society of Beijing
    Beijing Key Lab of Energy Economics and Environmental Management)

Abstract

It is crucial that the implementation of environmental regulations have a positive synergistic effect on carbon productivity growth (i.e., environmentally adjusted productivity growth with the consideration of carbon emissions) for China to realize its sustainable development goals because the country is currently under tripartite pressures of economic growth, carbon emissions control, and environmental pollution reduction. This paper investigates the impact of changes in environmental regulation stringency on industrial-level carbon productivity growth in China. Through utilizing the information entropy method, a new index of environmental regulation stringency is established by taking into account the effects of both pollution reduction consequences and pollution reduction measures. In addition, based on the data envelopment analysis method, a Malmquist carbon productivity index is proposed to estimate the industrial carbon productivity growth of 21 major industrial sectors in China’s 30 provinces over 2004–2014. Finally, an econometric regression model is applied to test the synergistic effects of environmental regulations on carbon productivity in China’s major industrial sectors. The results show that (1) a stringent environmental regulation is associated with an increase in overall industrial carbon productivity growth in China; (2) there exist significant pass-through effects in China’s major industrial sectors that technology can transmit effectively from leader to follower; (3) there also exist obvious follow-up effects in China’s major industrial sectors, i.e., the industrial sectors that have larger technological gaps with the leaders catch up faster than others; and (4) the environmental regulations have different effects on industrial sectors with different polluting levels, i.e., there is a positive linear relationship between environmental regulation stringency and industrial-level carbon productivity growth in low-polluting industrial sectors, a parabolic nonlinear relationship between them in high-polluting industrial sectors, and an inverted U-shaped relationship between them in moderate-polluting industrial sectors.

Suggested Citation

  • Ge Gao & Ke Wang & Chi Zhang & Yi-Ming Wei, 2019. "Synergistic effects of environmental regulations on carbon productivity growth in China’s major industrial sectors," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 95(1), pages 55-72, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:95:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s11069-018-3446-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s11069-018-3446-1
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    Cited by:

    1. Liang Liu & Mengyue Li & Xiujuan Gong & Pan Jiang & Ruifeng Jin & Yuhan Zhang, 2022. "Influence Mechanism of Different Environmental Regulations on Carbon Emission Efficiency," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-19, October.
    2. Christina Bampatsou & George Halkos, 2021. "Non-Parametric Computational Measures for the Analysis of Resource Productivity," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-14, May.
    3. Bin Fan & Mingyang Li, 2022. "The Effect of Heterogeneous Environmental Regulations on Carbon Emission Efficiency of the Grain Production Industry: Evidence from China’s Inter-Provincial Panel Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-27, November.
    4. Osman, Ibrahim H. & Zablith, Fouad, 2021. "Re-evaluating electronic government development index to monitor the transformation toward achieving sustainable development goals," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 426-440.
    5. Zhihua Ding & Jy S. Wu & Xunpeng Shi & Qunwei Wang, 2019. "Energy economy system and risk management: a contribution toward China meeting its goals for the Paris climate accord," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 95(1), pages 1-5, January.
    6. Ling-Yun He & Hong-Zhen Zhang, 2021. "Spillover or crowding out? The effects of environmental regulation on residents’ willingness to pay for environmental protection," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 105(1), pages 611-630, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    China’s industrial sector; Environmental regulation; Industrial heterogeneity; Pollution intensity; Total factor carbon productivity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General

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