Rectifying local governments’ strategic environmental enforcement: Can refined air pollution monitoring enhance local air quality in China?

IF 7.9 2区经济学 Q1 ECONOMICS

Economic Analysis and Policy Pub Date : 2024-10-13 DOI:10.1016/j.eap.2024.10.009

Ruqi Wang , Pei Xu , Honggui Gao

{"title":"Rectifying local governments’ strategic environmental enforcement: Can refined air pollution monitoring enhance local air quality in China?","authors":"Ruqi Wang , Pei Xu , Honggui Gao","doi":"10.1016/j.eap.2024.10.009","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Insufficient local environmental enforcement has become a pivotal economic and political concern in China. In 2017, the Chinese central government introduced the Air Pollution Hot-Spot Grid (APHG) monitoring program. However, little is known about the consequences. This study investigates in detail how this monitoring program affects city-level air pollution by applying the difference-in-differences method. This program was responsible for a notable decrease in air pollution at the city level. This decrease was mostly the result of stronger local environmental governance, advances in green innovation, and an upgraded industrial structure. Additionally, an examination of heterogeneous treatment effects across different cities revealed that the most substantial effects were observed in large, non-resource-based, and eastern cities. Additional analysis reveals the presence of a spillover effect, whereby the adoption of this program in one city helps reduce air pollution in nearby cities. These results highlight the significance of refined air pollution monitoring for addressing imperfect local environmental enforcement.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54200,"journal":{"name":"Economic Analysis and Policy","volume":"84 ","pages":"Pages 978-995"},"PeriodicalIF":7.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Economic Analysis and Policy","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0313592624002649","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Insufficient local environmental enforcement has become a pivotal economic and political concern in China. In 2017, the Chinese central government introduced the Air Pollution Hot-Spot Grid (APHG) monitoring program. However, little is known about the consequences. This study investigates in detail how this monitoring program affects city-level air pollution by applying the difference-in-differences method. This program was responsible for a notable decrease in air pollution at the city level. This decrease was mostly the result of stronger local environmental governance, advances in green innovation, and an upgraded industrial structure. Additionally, an examination of heterogeneous treatment effects across different cities revealed that the most substantial effects were observed in large, non-resource-based, and eastern cities. Additional analysis reveals the presence of a spillover effect, whereby the adoption of this program in one city helps reduce air pollution in nearby cities. These results highlight the significance of refined air pollution monitoring for addressing imperfect local environmental enforcement.

查看原文本刊更多论文

整顿地方政府的战略性环境执法：精细化空气污染监测能否改善中国地方空气质量？

地方环境执法力度不足已成为中国经济和政治方面的一个关键问题。2017 年，中国中央政府推出了大气污染热点网格（APHG）监测项目。然而，人们对其后果知之甚少。本研究采用差分法详细研究了该监测项目如何影响城市一级的空气污染。该计划使城市一级的空气污染明显减少。这种下降主要是由于地方环境治理的加强、绿色创新的进步以及产业结构的升级。此外，对不同城市异质性处理效果的研究表明，在大城市、非资源型城市和东部城市观察到的效果最为显著。其他分析表明了溢出效应的存在，即一个城市采用该计划有助于减少附近城市的空气污染。这些结果凸显了精细化空气污染监测对于解决地方环境执法不完善问题的重要意义。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Economic Analysis and Policy ECONOMICS-

CiteScore

9.80

自引率

9.20%

发文量

231

审稿时长

93 days

期刊介绍： Economic Analysis and Policy (established 1970) publishes articles from all branches of economics with a particular focus on research, theoretical and applied, which has strong policy relevance. The journal also publishes survey articles and empirical replications on key policy issues. Authors are expected to highlight the main insights in a non-technical introduction and in the conclusion.