 “Size-dependent” environmental regulations and spatial labor allocationShiYi Chen, EnDong Liang and ChaoLiang Liu Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 2025, vol. 132, issue C Abstract: Rich evidence shows that the large and more developed cities in China (as in many other countries) enforce stricter environmental regulations. On one hand, stringent regulations have negative impacts on the local labor market, leading to labor outflow into small cities with lower productivity and “dirtier” industrial structure. On the other hand, better environment quality (as a result of the regulations) is also an attraction for domestic immigrants. This paper is the first to use a quantitative spatial model to study the consequences of spatially “size-dependent” urban environmental policies. We find that higher aggregate productivity and fewer total emissions can be simultaneously achieved by reducing the existing “size-dependent” variation of environmental regulations in China. Moreover, to meet a given overall abatement target, urging the largest cities to further tighten the regulations may do the most damage to the economy. Keywords: Environmental regulations; City size distribution; Size-dependent policies (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeeman:v:132:y:2025:i:c:s0095069625000427 DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem.2025.103158 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Environmental Economics and Management is currently edited by M.A. Cole, A. Lange, D.J. Phaneuf, D. Popp, M.J. Roberts, M.D. Smith, C. Timmins, Q. Weninger and A.J. Yates More articles in Journal of Environmental Economics and Management from Elsevier |
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