Impact of an official accountability audit on industrial structure adjustment:a case study of environmental regulation in China

As a unique environmental regulation in China,the official accountability audit was piloted in 2014.With a focus on prioritizing the ecological environment,officials in pilot districts have implemented economic construction,adjusted industrial structures,and promoted coordinated development between the economy and environment.The effects of implementation have garnered widespread attention from society.However,there is limited research on the impact of an accountability audit on industrial structure adjustments.Using the“Accountability Audit of Officials for Natural Resource Assets(Trial)”released in 2015 as a quasi-natural experiment,this study collected panel data from 279 cities between 2013 and 2017.It then empirically analyzed the impact mechanism and effects of the accountability audit on industrial structure adjustment using the Propensity Score Matching and Difference-in-Differences model.The research findings indicate that the accountability audit directly impacted industrial structure adjustment,promoting the upgrading of the primary industry to the secondary industry and restricting the development of the tertiary industry.In addition,the audit is beneficial for enterprise entry,but not conducive to technological innovation,and has no significant impact on foreign direct investment.This conclusion fills a gap in the existing research and provides valuable insights for policymakers.

Contract Mechanism of Water Environment Regulation for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Based on Optimal Control Theory

The small and scattered enterprise pattern in the county economy has formed numerous sporadic pollution sources, hindering the centralized treatment of the water environment, increasing the cost and difficulty of treatment. How enterprises can make reasonable decisions on their water environment behavior based on the external environment and their own factors is of great significance for scientifically and effectively designing water environment regulation mechanisms. Based on optimal control theory, this study investigates the design of contractual mechanisms for water environmental regulation for small and medium-sized enterprises. The enterprise is regarded as an independent economic entity that can adopt optimal control strategies to maximize its own interests. Based on the participation of multiple subjects including the government, enterprises, and the public, an optimal control strategy model for enterprises under contractual water environmental regulation is constructed using optimal control theory, and a method for calculating the amount of unit pollutant penalties is derived. The water pollutant treatment cost data of a paper company is selected to conduct empirical numerical analysis on the model. The results show that the increase in the probability of government regulation and public participation, as well as the decrease in local government protection for enterprises, can achieve the same regulatory effect while reducing the number of administrative penalties per unit. Finally, the implementation process of contractual water environmental regulation for small and medium-sized enterprises is designed.

The impact of political connections on firm pollution: New evidence based on heterogeneous environmental regulation

Increasing attention has been focused on the extent to which corporate political connections influence the growing pollution due to the rapid growth in the popularity of firm pollution in developing countries.We adopt a static threshold regression model to investigate the effects of heterogeneous environmental regulation on political connections and firm pollution based on the panel data from China’s A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2019.The empirical results show a non-linear relationship between the degree of political connection of listed company executives and the level of firm pollution.And the relationship between the two roughly presents a U-shaped relationship under the action of the marketincentive environmental regulation threshold.However,it roughly presents an inverted N-shaped relationship under the action of the command-control environmental regulation threshold.Additionally,the group test results show that the existence of regional and ownership heterogeneity causes certain differences in the environmental behaviour of politically connected enterprises.These findings indicate that diverse environmental regulations are needed to promote sustainable green development and to further expand the theoretical and practical exploration of political connections on firm pollution.

Does Environmental Regulation Weaken Industrial Competitiveness?Inspirations from China’s Iron and Steel Sector

China＇s economic growth is heavily influenced by exports, while reconciling environmental regulation and economic growth requires handling the relationship between environmental regulation and industrial competitiveness well. The effects of environmental regulation on industrial competitiveness are largely subject to the institutional design of environmental regulation. Despite numerous studies on the relationship between environmental regulation and industrial competitiveness, a consensus has yet to be reached. Aside from differences in research methodology, these studies failed to give sufficient consideration to the impact of environmental regulation on industrial competitiveness. Such effects can be negative or positive depending on the design of environmental regulatory policy. This paper has investigated the relationship between environmental regulation and the competitiveness of China＇s iron and steel industry and discovered that tighter environmental regulation does not diminish the competitiveness of the iron and steel industry since the policy design of environmental regulation accommodates the tolerance of advanced production capacity and includes a reasonable cost sharing mechanism. This discovery is of important reference for China to develop rational policy design to balance the relationship between environmental regulation and industrial competitiveness.

Environmental Regulation,Pollution Treatment Productivity,and Industrial Environmental TFP in China

Amidst growing environmental protection intensity by the Chinese government, this paper investigates the effects of environmental regulation on China＇s industrial pollution treatment productivity and environmental TFP. By estimating China＇s pollution treatment productivity between 2001 and 2008 and analyzing environmental regulation intensity and the effects of the relevant factors and pollution treatment productivity using panel data, this paper discovers that （1） pollution treatment productivity contributed a significant share of about 40% to industrial environmental TFP during the investigation period; （2） environmental regulation may not necessarily cause adverse impacts on pollution treatment efficiency and productivity but demonstrates a U-shaped relationship： when the share of pollution treatment cost in industrial value-added is above the range of 3.8%-5.1%, environmental regulation is likely to promote pollution treatment productivity and thus environmental TFP Judging by the estimation result, enhancing environmental protection and expediting the development of ecological civilization are conducive to China ＂s economic transition towards an intensive, efficient, circular, and sustainable development pattern. China＇s current industrial development has the capacity to tolerate a rather demanding level of pollution treatment and management and China needs to further rely on energy conservation and the environmental production industries to promote the progress of pollution treatment technologies.

Does strict environmental regulation enhance the global value chains position of China's industrial sector?

Given the vital importance of global value chains(GVCs)position for a country's international competitiveness,this paper tries to investigate the impacts of environmental regulation on the GVCs position of China's industrial sector.Using the latest value-added decomposition method,we first measure the GVCs position of China's industrial sector from 2003 to 2014.Subsequently,both two-stage least squares(2 SLS)method with panel data and mediating effect model are employed to empirically examine the effects of environmental regulation on China's position in GVCs.The results indicate that environmental regulation has significantly upgraded the GVCs position of China's industrial sector,and the effect is more evident for the sub-sectors with originally lower GVCs position.The mediation effect test shows that increasing R&D investment is an important channel through which environmental regulation affects the GVCs position of China's industrial sector,which verifies the existence of the Porter hypothesis.Further analysis finds that the enhancement of GVCs position of China's industrial sector caused by environmental regulation is mainly achieved through reducing the backward GVCs position.

An empirical analysis on the impact of environmental regulations on pork trade:evidence from China

This paper uses the gravity model to examine the effect of environmental regulations on pork trade flows between different regions within China.We apply a linear programming tool to estimate pork trade flows from 2000 to 2008,and discuss the environmental acts on livestock pollution and income level to proxy environmental regulations.We use OLS regression and panel data with dummy variable in the cross-sectional GLS estimation.Our results indicate that the gap of environmental regulations between trade partners has a positive relationship with pork trade flows,and the difference in environmental regulations changes the traditional comparative advantage pattern to some extent.This paper provides convincing evidence for the pollution haven effect on livestock in China.

Spatial Effect of Environmental Regulation on Carbon Emissions

Based on Chinese provincial panel data from 2003 to 2014,the spatial dependence between the environment regulation and carbon emissions is tested by spatial autocorrelation analysis. Besides,spatial lag model and spatial error model are built to empirically test the marginal effect of environmental regulation on carbon emissions and its spatial effect. The result shows that the influence trajectory of environmental regulation on carbon emissions performances inverted ＂ U＂ type. It is ＂ green paradox effect＂ before the inflection point and ＂ reversed transmission reduction effect＂ after the inflection point. Moreover,the carbon emissions show significant spatial spillover effect. In order to achieve the desired effect of environmental regulation and promote carbon reduction,we should increase the environmental regulation intensity reasonably,select rational environmental regulation policy tools,and sufficiently consider the spatial spillover effect of carbon emissions.

Impact of environmental regulations on the efficient control of industrial pollution in China

The continuous progress of industrialization is a fundamental cause of China’s increasingly severe environmental pollution problem.Improving the efficiency of industrial pollution control is an inevitable choice to effectively decrease pollution emissions,thus winning the battle of pollution prevention and control.In this paper,we used the stochastic frontier analysis(SFA)model to measure the provincial efficiency of industrial pollution control based on the input and output data of industrial pollution control of 29 administrative provinces in China from 2000 to 2017.On this basis,a spatial econometric model was used to explore the influence of environmental regulation intensity on the efficiency of industrial pollution control.In addition,the spatial spillover effect of pollution reduction was thoroughly examined.The results show that:(1)The efficiency of industrial pollution control in China has improved year by year,but the overall efficiency is still low,with the average value increasing from 0.165 in 2000 to 0.309 in 2017.Furthermore,there is significant regional heterogeneity with the highest efficiency level in the east and lowest efficiency level in the west.(2)By increasing the financial and material input,the efficiency of industrial pollution control has increased.However,the increase of human input has not been so helpful.(3)The global Moran’s I index is significantly greater than zero,indicating a strong spatial correlation and agglomeration in the efficiency of industrial pollution control,which is reflected in high-high agglomeration in the eastern region and low-low agglomeration in the western region.(4)Stringent environmental regulation has a positive effect on improving the efficiency of industrial pollution control.It also imposes a positive spatial spillover effect,indicating a strategic interaction and coordination of regional pollution control.In line with this,related proposals have been made to optimize the investment structure for environmental pollution control,establish a flow mechanism for the factor market,and strengthen the environmental responsibility awareness of state-owned enterprises.On this basis,we expect to provide a policy for improving the efficiency of industrial pollution control and promoting regional joint pollution control in China.

The impact of environmental regulations on international competitiveness of textile industry in China

A greater focus of environmental protection is directed toward environmental regulations in China. This paper focuses on environmental regulations and their impact on textile industry. The academic circle does not reach a consensus on the relationship between environmental regulations and international competitiveness. Some hold the view that environmental regulations lower international competitiveness while others think that environmental regulations improve both environment and economic performance. This paper aims to analyze the impact of the environmental regulations on the international competitiveness of textile industry in China. This study starts with theories relative to this subject; the second part, based on the impact mechanism of environmental regulations on competitiveness, analyzes the environmental impact on textile from the perspective of cost and market. The conceptual exploration comes to the conclusion that environmental regulations make a negative impact on the international competitiveness on the cost side and improve it by means ofinnovation and product differentiation on market side; the third part gives time series evidence to examine the impact. In this part the Pearson Correlation Analysis is conducted based on the data of China's textile industry of the period from 1991 to 2005. It turns out to prove that the negative environmental impact on cost side exceeds the positive environmental impact on market side, namely, environmental regulations deteriorate the international competitiveness in textile industry as a whole during the inspected period.

The mechanism and heterogeneity of environmental regulations'impact on the technological progress of dairy farming

The study analyses the theoretical mechanism through which environmental regulation affects the dairy industry’s technological progress,with a particular focus on how the effect is conditional on farm size.Using the input–output data of dairy farms of different sizes from 2009 to 2019 in 10 Chinese provinces/autonomous regions in China and the quantitative measurement index of environmental regulation,the study estimates environmental regulation’s heterogeneous influences on the dairy industry’s technological progress by dynamic panel data models.The empirical results suggest that,first,environmental regulation has a U-type influence on the technological progress of dairy farming.The U-type influence means moving from pollution control’s high cost and low technology progress to the high profit and high innovation input generated by optimizing the breeding structure.Second,the promotion of dairy farming technology depends on farm size.The effect of environmental regulation on technological progress in moderately large-farms showed a U-type relationship.In contrast,the effect in free-range and large-size dairy farms showed a linear and positive relationship.The government should further strengthen environmental regulation based on advancing moderately large-farms in compliance with market mechanisms in the long run.Particular attention should be paid to the forms of environmental regulation so that dairy cattle breeding technology can break through the inflection point of the“U”curve as soon as possible and ensure the significance of the rising stage.Along the way,technical support should be provided for realizing environmental protection and economic growth.

The impact of environmental regulation on total factor productivity of firms:An analysis based on technical distance

Most studies on environmental policy and total factor productivity(TFP)growth under the heterogeneity framework tend to ignore the distance to the technical frontier,while research that investigates TFP growth based on technical distances does not tend to consider environmental policy.To fill this research gap,this study investigates the impact of environmental regulation on the total factor productivity of heterogeneous firms,based on technical distance.In addition to theoretical analysis,we apply a two-direction fixed effects model to test the impact using firm-level data selected from the CSMAR database and environmental regulation data of 287 Chinese cities between 2007 and 2015.We report two major findings from our analysis.First,environmental regulation increasingly enhances(or hinders)TFP growth,as firms get closer to(or further away from)the country-industry technology frontier,ceteris paribus.Second,grouped regression further highlights that environmental regulation affects TFP growth for heterogeneous firms.For proximal-type firms,environmental regulation promotes the growth of TFP through innovation and imitation mechanisms,while only the imitation mechanism works for middle-type firms.Neither mechanism,however,applies to distal-type firms,for whom environmental regulation hinders TFP growth.These conclusions provide a theoretical and practical basis for environmental policy,suggesting that the focus should be directed toward improving exit mechanisms for distal-type firms,creating a favorable market environment to accelerate the convergence of middle-type firms to the frontier,and encouraging proximal-type firms to innovate to catch up with or surpass the global frontier.

Can environmental regulations achieve both profitability and profit quality?A natural experiment based on the China Cleaner Production Standards

Numerous studies evaluated the effects of end-of-pipe control environmental regulations(EER).However,few scholars discussed the effects of process management environmental regulations(PER),such as the China Cleaner Production Standards(CCPS)implemented by the country's Ministry of Ecology and Environment.Using data on China's manufacturing enterprises,this paper adopts the CCPS policies as quasi-natural experiments and uses differences-in-differences(DID)methods to analyze their effects on enterprise profitability and profit quality,respectively.The results show that:first,the CCPS significantly improve both profitability and profit quality;that is,the implementation of the environmental regulation policy plays a significant role in improving enterprise profit rates and cash flows.Second,for the profitability mediator effects,the short-term Porter effect of CCPS is not significant but shows the opposite during the lag period and significantly reduces the management cost and wage levels,comprehensively promoting enterprise profitability.Third,for the profit quality meditator effects,environmental regulations improve the enterprises'cash flow by reducing management costs and increasing government subsidies;however,its effect on bank credit subsidies is not significant.Fourth,for the moderator effects,the environmental regulations'effect on enterprises profitability and profit quality depends on the strategic interaction among local governments,the scale and ownership of the enterprise,and regional differences.That is,the strategic interaction weakens the effect of environmental regulations on enterprise performance.Environmental regulations have a stronger influence on profitability and profit quality for large-scale,state-owned,and coastal enterprises.

Environmental regulation,hidden economy,and China's outward foreign direct investment

The need to balance economic growth and its environmental impact continues to be a serious issue in China.As environmental regulation in China increases in importance,it is critical to understand how it impacts economic growth drivers such as outward foreign direct investment(OFDI)to formulate effective policies.One consideration should be the hidden economy,which can weaken the effects of environmental regulation on OFDI.This study investigates the scale of the hidden economy in 30 provinces and province-level municipalities in China in the period 2004 to 2015.The study uses the multiple indicators and multiple causes(MIMIC)model and the systematic generalized method of moments(GMM)test to analyze the impact of environmental regulation and the hidden economy on China's OFDI.The results show that stronger environmental regulation promotes OFDI.However,the hidden economy inhibits China's OFDI,as the positive effects of environmental regulation that drive OFDI are distorted.From a regional perspective,stronger environmental regulation promotes OFDI as well,while the hidden economy inhibits it.The interaction between environmental regulation and the hidden economy also inhibits it significantly.

Environmental regulation and firms'performance:a quasi-natural experiment from China

This paper investigates whether environmental regulation affects firm's performance including productivity,wage and employment using firm-level data in 1996-2007.The identification uses Two Control Zones(TCZ)policy implemented by the Chinese government in 1998,in which tougher environmental regulations were imposed in TCZ cities but not others.By difference-indifferences estimation,we find that tougher environmental regulation leads to larger increase on both total factor productivity and wage,and firms tend to employ fewer workers under pressure of environmental protection.Heterogeneous tests show that the impacts are better for nonpollution intensive firms,non-exporters and SOEs.Finally,we find that R&D input and exiting firms among industry are the driving forces for enhancing TFP and increasing wage and unemployment.

Impact of Environmental Regulation on Industrial Upgrading: Analysis Based on Panel Data of 30 Provinces in China

Environmental regulation and industrial upgrading are the key to achieve win-win results for both economy and the environment. After environmental regulation tools are divided into market incentive and command control types,based on the provincial-level data of 30 provinces( cities and regions) in China from 2004 to 2016,the impact of environmental regulation on industrial upgrading and its transmission paths are empirically tested through an intermediary effect model. Technological innovation,FDI and capital market development all meet intermediary conditions,and the market incentive type is more dependent on technological innovation,while the command control type is more dependent on FDI and capital market development.The impact of the two environmental regulation tools on industrial upgrading is further studied. The results show that there is an " inverted U-shaped" relationship between the command control type and industrial upgrading,while there is a " U-shaped" relationship between the market incentive type and industrial upgrading,and there are also certain regional differences in the impact of environmental regulation on industrial upgrading.

Input-Output Analysis of the Impact of Environmental Regulation on Chinese Industries

In this paper, we attempted to calculate the impact of environmental regulation on the international competitiveness of China＇s industries. Calculations are based on the input-output model that incorporates pollution control costs. We took enterprises ＇pollution control costs as the substitute variable for environmental regulation and price changes to measure the impact on international competitiveness for all sectors. Our studies reported three findings. First, price rises caused by pollution control costs were not more than 4 per cent in the manufacturing and trade sectors in 2007. Second, although the charging rate on pollutant discharge has become increasingly higher since 2003, the resultant price rise is only around O. 5 per cent across all sectors. Third, the impact brought about by increasingly stronger environmental regulation is limited and the resultant price rise does not exceed 2 per cent. Thesefindings indicate that the impact of environmental regulation on China＇s trade sectors is affordable. Therefore, it is needless to worry that environmental regulation will weaken the international competitiveness of Chinese products.

Costs and Benefits of China＇s Environmental Regulation

This paper examines the current costs, benefits and intensity of China＇s industrial environment regulation, as well as the path of regulatory enhancement. Regulatory intensity has been on the rise since 1997. The intensity was only 43 in 1997 and then reached 68 by 2007. This paper for the first time compares the treatment costs at the front and rear ends of pollution chain, employs the concept of regulatory benefit multiplier, and calculates the benefit multipliers for different pollutants. Results indicate that enhanced environmental protection since 1997 makes social and economic sense, particularly for the front end treatment of various pollutants since 2004, which have considerable economic benefits. After comparing the benefit multipliers, we have prioritized the pollutants for regulatory consideration： environmental regulation shouM be made tougher for waste water first, and then dust and fumes, followed by SO2 and lastly CO2. This will help to achieve the best environmental outcomes while incurring no additional economic costs.

Relationship between R&D investment and business performance from the perspective of environmental regulation: Takeing the heavy-polluting industries from 2011 to 2016 as an example

In recent years, China has promulgated many laws and regulations of environmental protection, gradually forming an environmental regulation system, and most enterprises are under the dual pressure of environmental protection and business performance. It would be a significant way that enterprises undertake R&D activities for a change. This paper is based on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed heavy pollution enterprises in 2011-2016, which is based on the review and summary of research results of former researchers, combining with current environmental regulation situation of our country, raising the relevant hypothesis between environmental regulations, R&D investment and business performance against heavy pollution industry. Adopting the method of empirical research, it also built the linear regression model which employs the relevant financial data of heavy-polluting enterprises in China as the statistical research sample. The relationship for heavy-polluting enterprises affected by environmental regulations between environmental protection R&D investment and enterprise business performance was tested. The results show that there is a positive influence on the environmental R&D investment and business performance, and a lag effect upon the R&D investment of enterprises to business performance. Finally, the research results were used to evaluates problems existing in the R&D investment on pollution industry in China as well as business performance and we put forward some suggestions on improving environmental regulation standards and technology innovation consciousness as well as optimizing the structure of R&D investment.

Environmental improvement or industry enhancement?A case study on the impact of environmental regulations on Chinese automobile industry

Developing countries are encouraged to pursue environmental protection and industrial development simultaneously,although it is a big challenge to reach win-win situation.This study explored the relationshipbetween environmental regulations and the industry enhancement in developing countries through conducting an empirical analysis of the impact of environmental regulationson Chinese automobile industry.In the empirical analysis,a total of64Chinese automobile enterprises were investigated,the Malmquist index of total factor productivity was adopted to determine the productivity of Chinese automobiles,and the two-step system Generalised Method of Moments(GMM)estimation was used for the regressionanalysis.The resultsshowedthat environmental regulations negatively affected the productivity and technology of Chinese automobile industry during 2004-2018.The production costof automobile industry in China was rising sharply,and the productivity and technological progress of Chinese automobile industry were impeded significantly.The case of Chinese automobile industry illustrated that strict environmental requirements can negatively impact industry productivity by increasing production costs and squeezing industry profits.