Is green place-based policy effective in mitigating pollution? Firm-level evidence from China

Qi Cheng and Jun Yang

Economic Analysis and Policy, 2024, vol. 83, issue C, 530-547

Abstract: The green place-based policy is crucial for balancing economic competitiveness and environmental protection. However, there is scarce literature examining its impact on environmental pollution and the underlying mechanisms at the micro level. This paper treats China's National Demonstration Eco-Industrial Parks (EIP) as a quasi-natural experiment and systematically evaluates its effect on pollution using a difference-in-differences (DID) approach. With data from Chinese industrial firms and counties, this research reveals that the EIP leads to a significant reduction of 54.36% in firms’ sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions. Moreover, increasing R&D investment, reducing SO2 emission intensity, implementing production process pollution control, and dynamic adjustments of firm entry and exit are significant influencing mechanisms. Heterogeneity tests indicate a stronger SO2 reduction effect of the EIP program on firms in eastern regions, capital-intensive industries, and non-state-owned enterprises. This study suggests that the Chinese government should support the establishment of EIP, conduct a coordinate system, strategically plan the industrial chain, establish a pollution monitoring and early warning system, enhance information disclosure, and give greater emphasis to the construction of EIPs in central and western China.

Keywords: Green place-based policy; Eco-industrial park; SO2 emissions; Difference-in-Differences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0313592624001693
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:ecanpo:v:83:y:2024:i:c:p:530-547

DOI: 10.1016/j.eap.2024.07.003

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Analysis and Policy is currently edited by Clevo Wilson

More articles in Economic Analysis and Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().