评比表彰何以促进污染治理?——来自文明城市评比的经验证据

How Does Evaluation and Recognition Promote Pollution Control?Empirical Evidence from the Evaluation of Civilized Cities

【问题】评比表彰是中央政府促进城市环境治理的重要工具,相对于命令控制型和市场型的环境政策工具较少得到关注。那么,这一新的环境政策工具的治理效能及其空间溢出效应如何,能否打破城市环境治理难题?【方法】论文基于2003-2016年285个城市的面板数据,以2005年开始的文明城市评比表彰作为自然实验,运用多期双重差分与空间计量相结合的方法,检验了文明城市设立的环境效应以及空间溢出。【发现】首先,文明城市评比显著降低了本地区的工业污水和二氧化硫的排放强度;其次,邻近地区的排放强度也得到降低,空间溢出示范效应显著。其作用机制为:文明城市评选通过强化环境规制、改善地方基础设施以及动员与吸纳公众参与环境治理从而促进了环境质量的改善。【贡献】论文有助于思考在中国这样具有独特治理结构的国家如何借助于评比表彰将“目标”和“竞赛”结合起来,从而最大化发挥环境政策工具的效能,丰富了环境政策工具理论的研究。同时,本研究为以文明城市为代表的评比表彰类工具的效能评估提供了理论和实证的框架。

Motivation: As an important promotional tool for urban environmental governance,evaluation and recognition has received less attention than the central government’s other tools such as command-and-control and market-based environmental policies. Then,what is the governance effectiveness of this new environmental policy tool and its spatial spillover effects? Can it break the difficult problem of urban environmental governance?Methodology: Based on panel data from 285 cities from the period 2003-2016,this research takes the evaluation and recognition from civilized cities as a natural experiment. Using the multi-period difference-in-difference and spatial measurement methods, this study tested the environmental effects and spatial spillovers of the establishment of civilized cities.Finding ∶ First, the civilized city rating has significantly reduced the intensity of industrial effluents and sulphur dioxide emissions in the region. Second,the emission intensity of the neighboring areas was also reduced and the spatial spillover demonstration effect was significant. The Civilized City Award contributes to improving environmental quality by strengthening environmental regulations, improving local infrastructure,and mobilizing and involving the public in environmental management.Contribution: This paper furthers the consideration of combining ’ goals’ and ’competition’ with awards and recognition in order to maximize the effectiveness of environmental policy instruments in countries with unique governance structures such as China. It also enriches the theoretical research on environmental policy instruments. At the same time,this paper provides a theoretical and empirical framework for evaluating the effectiveness of assessment and commendation tools such as the Civilized City Award.