非意图的后果:政府扁平化改革与空气污染治理

Unintended Consequences:Flattening of Government Hierarchies and Air Pollution Control

行政层级精简和决策权下沉能激发地方政府积极性,但也会加大权力监督难度,引发治理风险。本文利用扩权强县改革中环保行政管理权下放到县的政策实施,研究政府扁平化改革对县域空气污染的影响。分析发现,政府扁平化改革显著加剧了空气污染,导致污染类企业投资扩张,随着改革的推进其污染效应越发明显;这一效应与省对县的垂直监督密切相关,在省级主管部门监督力量不足和监督距离越远的地区,扁平化改革对空气污染的负向影响越明显;这一效应受到县级政府治理目标的影响,经济增长激励越强的县,政府扁平化改革的空气污染效应越大,中央政府强化环保监管有助于降低扁平化改革的污染效应。因此,在简政放权改革中,需要同步提升上级主管部门的行政监督力量,特别是规制部门的扁平化改革需要谨防出现监管“真空”,处理好放权与监督的关系。

Delayering and delegation of decision-making power while stimulating government initiatives at the primary level can lead to difficulties in transferring and monitoring information and incur governance risks.This study makes use of the policy implement generated by provincial governments’direct administration of county environmental governance to examine the impact of environmental administration flattening on air pollution abatement.From the results,it is observed that:(1)the flattening of environmental administration significantly aggravates air pollution at the county level and promotes investment by polluting companies;as reform progresses,the pollution effect becomes more obvious.(2)In areas where the competent provincial environmental authorities carry out lax supervision and where the supervision distance is greater,the negative impact of the flattening administration reform on air pollution is particularly evident;this effect is closely linked to the intensity of vertical supervision of the provinces over the counties.(3)The delegation of administrative environmental power to lower levels of government makes it easier for county-level governments to intervene in environmental governance.However,the greater the incentive for economic growth in a county,the bigger the pollution effect of flattening environmental administration reform;this effect is affected by the governance objectives of county-level governments.Therefore,in the reform stream-lining administration and delegation of power,the administrative supervisory power of super-ordinated authorities should be enhanced accordingly,and the regulatory supervision vacuum due to the flattening reform in regulatory authorities should be prevented,properly managing the relationship between delegation of power and supervision.