Less pollution under a more centralized environmental system: Evidence from vertical environmental reforms in China

Chao Han and Xian-Liang Tian

Energy Economics, 2022, vol. 112, issue C

Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of a series of environmental centralizing reforms (the so-called vertical environmental reforms) in China on polluting firms' SO2 emission. Using manually collected data on when/where the reforms took place, we conduct the analysis in a difference-in-differences framework, controlling for a rich set of fixed effects and selection variables on the reforms. Our empirical results show that after the reforms, Chinese polluting firms have undergone a 10.6% abatement in SO2 emission; and their installed coal boilers have decreased by 9.6%. The firms that are important employment and tax-revenue providers in local economy experience more decrease in their SO2 emission. Using geo-information on firms' location, we also find that the firms close to county borders are more affected by the reforms.

Keywords: Pollution; SO2; Centralization; Environmental system; Vertical reform; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H23 L51 Q52 Q53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988322002808
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:112:y:2022:i:c:s0140988322002808

DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2022.106121

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Economics is currently edited by R. S. J. Tol, Beng Ang, Lance Bachmeier, Perry Sadorsky, Ugur Soytas and J. P. Weyant

More articles in Energy Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().