Environmental regulation, human capital, and pollutant emissions: the case of SO2 emissions for China

ABSTRACT This study aims to explore whether the impact of environmental regulation on pollution emissions varies across China’s regions under different human capital levels. And whether environmental regulation will affect sulfur emissions through human capital is also examined. The empirical results conclude that: (1) environmental protection investment cannot effectively contribute to sulfur emission reduction for the full sample; (2) environmental regulation can aggravate pollution emissions when human capital is low, while human capital is in a high-level, enhanced regulation can help reduce pollution emissions; and (3) environmental regulation can help strengthen sulfur reduction through human capital accumulation; however, the reduction of sulfur emissions by human capital cannot offset the direct positive effect of environmental regulation on sulfur emissions.