Effect of Environmental Courts on Pollution Abatement: A Spatial Difference-in-Differences Analysis

Jingjing Deng, Mingxian Li, Yi Li and Jun Lu ()
Additional contact information
Jingjing Deng: School of Economics, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China
Mingxian Li: School of Economics, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China
Yi Li: College of Tourism, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, China
Jun Lu: School of Geography, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 4, 1-20

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of environmental courts on pollution abatement at the city level, utilizing the establishment of environmental courts in China as a quasi-experiment. A spatial difference-in-differences model is employed to control for the influence of environmental courts on neighbouring non-pilot cities. The results underscore the effectiveness of environmental courts in reducing industrial pollutant emissions, evident in both the pilot areas and adjacent non-pilot areas. The influence of environmental courts on pollution abatement is more pronounced in cities characterized by stronger environmental regulations, higher level of economic agglomeration, and higher level of openness. Mechanism analysis shows that environmental courts promote environmental supervision by governments, public participation in environmental protection, and expenditure on environmental governance by firms. In summary, this paper unveils the tangible effects of environmental courts on pollution abatement and elucidates the mechanisms underpinning this relationship. These findings provide timely implications for regulators concerned with environmental protection.

Keywords: environment courts; pollution abatement; adjacency effect; spatial difference-in-differences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/4/1452/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/4/1452/ (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:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:4:p:1452-:d:1336058

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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