Spatial Heterogeneity Influences of Environmental Control and Informal Regulation on Air Pollutant Emissions in China

Zhenhua Zhang, Guoxing Zhang, Shunfeng Song and Bin Su
Additional contact information
Zhenhua Zhang: School of Management, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Guoxing Zhang: School of Management, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 13, 1-22

Abstract: High air pollutant emissions in China have become serious environmental issues threatening public health. While spatial heterogeneity plays an important role in environmental regulation in China, it is necessary to analyze the spatial heterogeneity influences of air pollution control policies and informal environmental regulation on air pollutant emissions in China. Based on the quantification of air pollution control policies, this paper incorporates the central government’s policy formulation and local government’s policy implementation into the intensity of air pollution control policy. This paper uses the panel data of China’s 30 provinces to examine the spatial impact of air pollution control policy and informal environmental regulation on air pollutant emissions. The results show that (a) air pollutant emissions represented by soot and dust emission intensity has a significant positive spatial spillover effect; (b) air pollution control policy and informal environmental regulation play significant inhibitory roles in air pollutant emissions; (c) informal environmental regulation has a negative moderating effect on the negative relationship between air pollution control policy and air pollutant emissions. Other implications for environmental management have also been discussed.

Keywords: air pollution control policy; informal environmental regulation; spatial econometric model; policy quantification; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/13/4857/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/13/4857/ (text/html)

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:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:13:p:4857-:d:380830

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().