New Evidence on the Soft Budget Constraint: Chinese Environmental Policy Effectiveness in Private versus SOEs

Mathilde Maurel and Thomas Pernet-Coudrier ()
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Thomas Pernet-Coudrier: CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) from HAL

Abstract: This paper analyses the efficiency of a set of environmental measures introduced by the 11th FYP (Five Years Plan) in China in 2006, using a rich and unique dataset borrowed from the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) and from the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). The objective is to provide new evidence of the Soft Budget Constraint (SBC), which is a key concept coined by Janos Kornai. The main finding is that TCZ (Two Control Zone) cities are successful in bringing down the emission of SO2, and more importantly that this success is driven by the private sector. Sectors dominated by State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) are less sensitive to the environmental target-based evaluation system, by a factor of 42%. We also find that one channel, through which this adjustment takes place, is Total Factor Productivity (TFP), but not in the case of SOEs. We interpret these results as pointing to the evidence of a still ongoing SBC surrounding Chinese SOEs.

Keywords: Environmental regulation; China Kornai; Soft Budget Constraint (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-env, nep-res and nep-tra
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-02469382
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published in 2020

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Working Paper: New Evidence on the Soft Budget Constraint: Chinese Environmental Policy Effectiveness in Private versus SOEs (2020)
Working Paper: New Evidence on the Soft Budget Constraint: Chinese Envronmental Policy Effectiveness in Private versus SOEs (2020)
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