Performance-Based or Politic-Related Decomposition of Environmental Targets: A Multilevel Analysis in China

Pan Zhang and Jiannan Wu
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Pan Zhang: School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
Jiannan Wu: School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 10, 1-16

Abstract: China relies on the total pollutant emission control and environmental target responsibility system to curb environmental pollution and improve energy conversation. How the central government breaks down environmental targets among provincial governments lies at the core, but little research has been done to explore the determinants of environmental target-setting empirically. This work models the decomposition process of environmental targets by focusing on the roles of historical performance and provinces’ political status. With the method of hierarchical linear model, data on five kinds of environmental obligatory targets (energy consumption per unit GDP and other four kinds of pollutants) during China’s “12th Five-year Plan” period is used to test the hypotheses. The results show that provincial historical structural performance is negatively significantly correlated with their environmental target levels, while the effects of historical scale performance and intensity performance are not significant. Besides, provinces with higher political rankings tend to be allocated higher targets, which is in accordance with the model effect hypothesis rather than the bargaining effect hypothesis.

Keywords: environmental target-setting; performance; hierarchical linear model; environmental governance; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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