Analysis of embedded non-safety regulation games in China's two types of coal mines through safety performance disparity, 1980–2014

Quanlong Liu, Xinchun Li, Wanguan Qiao, Xianfei Meng, Xiangong Li and Tian Shi

Resources Policy, 2017, vol. 51, issue C, 265-271

Abstract: China has an appalling record of fatalities in its coal mining industry. Moreover, the fatalities observed in township and village coal mines (TVCMs) is much more terrible than that in state-owned coal mines (SOCMs). The safety performance of coal mines is influenced not solely by governmental safety regulation, but by their embedded non-safety regulation games with their internal and external related industries. Therefore, to better understand the safety performances disparity in SOCMs and TVCMs, an embedded non-safety regulation game analysis of the two types of mines is introduced. The paper traces China's safety records of SOCMs and TVCMs, and then analyzes their embedded non-safety regulation games respectively. The result shows that the SOCMs are mainly embedded into non-safety regulation games with the national electric power enterprises, railway sectors, and coal transportation and marketing enterprises; and the TVCMs are mainly embedded into non-safety regulation games with some local government officials and related groups (e.g. local gangdom and journalists). Moreover, in the above embedded games, the SOCMs and TVCMs are often placed in a weaker bargaining position. Besides, the SOCMs and TVCMs also play internal games on coal output and safety. Overall, the SOCMs and TVCMs are embedded into a plurality of different non-safety regulation games which, at least in part, affect their safety investment decisions differently and lead to safety performance disparity eventually.

Keywords: Non-safety regulation; Fatalities; Embedded games; Township and village coal mines; State-owned coal mines (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420716302550
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:jrpoli:v:51:y:2017:i:c:p:265-271

DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2017.01.009

Access Statistics for this article

Resources Policy is currently edited by R. G. Eggert

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