Air Pollution Control: An Analysis of China’s Industrial Off-Peak Production Policy through the Quasi-Natural Experiment Method

Xindi Xu, Qinyun Wang, Haichao Hu and Xinjun Wang
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Xindi Xu: Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China
Qinyun Wang: School of Economics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
Haichao Hu: School of Economics, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
Xinjun Wang: Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 9, 1-18

Abstract: To reduce frequent heavy air pollution, the Chinese government suspends clinker production during the heating season in most areas of the North, which is known as the Clinker Off-peak Production Policy. The questions regarding such a repressive production policy for environmental purposes are whether this policy is effective in reducing pollutants and whether the marginal cost is high. To explore these policy effects, a quasi-experiment is designed, taking advantage of spatial-temporal variations in policy implementation. With the triple-difference method and environmental satellite data, the effect on air pollution is estimated to be −1900 μg/m 2 (~2%) of SO 2 and −3200 μg/m 2 (~10%) of NO 2 . With daily price information and the difference-in-differences method, the market effect is estimated to be an approximately 10% increase in annual sale prices. The marginal cost estimated through a back-of-the-envelope analysis is 32 k RMB yuan/ton SO 2 or NO 2 , which is 24.88 times the pollutant discharge fee but which better reflects the pollutant shadow price.

Keywords: air pollution control; cement industry; effectiveness of policy; the marginal cost of pollutant reduction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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