Exploiting Chongqing's promotion to a province-level municipality, this paper investigates the causal effect of political hierarchy on corporate SO2 emissions using a spatial regression discontinuity ...(RD) design. In 1997, the prefecture-level Chongqing was promoted to a province-level municipality, obtaining a substantial increase in decision-making power over fiscal, personnel and administrative affairs. Given the fact that the areas around the Chongqing-Sichuan border shared the same social, economic, and geographical conditions prior to the treatment, the novel findings show that political hierarchy negatively affects corporate SO2 emissions and Chongqing's enterprises adjacent to the border have a 26% (1-e−0.301) reduction of SO2 emissions comparatively. The effects are robust enough using alternative model specifications and bandwidths. Besides, this paper provides empirical evidence that enterprises of Chongqing have resource-receiving and external-financing advantages owing to its higher political status. These interwoven advantages help enterprises in Chongqing exhibit better financial performance and enable them to conduct energy substitution, improve energy efficiency and adopt more end-of-pipe treatment, thereby mitigating SO2 emissions. Based on these findings, this study provides policy implications by shedding light on the effects of political hierarchy on corporate pollution emissions.
•Political hierarchy can shape pollution geography.•Different positions in the political hierarchy lead to disparities in resource-receiving and external financing for firms.•Political hierarchy has negative impacts on corporate SO2 emissions.•The influencing channels include clean energy substitution, improved energy efficiency and end-of-pipe treatment.
This study explores the impact of local fiscal distress on energy-intensive entrepreneurial ventures. We theoretically establish a conceptual framework between government fiscal distress and ...energy-intensive entrepreneurial activity through the lens of environmental regulation. Using the newly available firm registration data, we employ the Poisson regression model and find that the falling fiscal condition of county governments triggered by an exogenous tax reform significantly leads to more entry of energy-intensive enterprises. We uncover that the increased entry of energy-intensive enterprises is primarily driven by relaxing environmental regulation rather than other policy changes. Delving into firm nature, we find that these energy-intensive entrants are usually large firms and privately owned firms. Further evidence suggests that industrial agglomeration, regional marketization levels, and legal environments negatively moderate the impact of fiscal distress on the entry of energy-intensive enterprises. This paper sheds light on the potential environmental consequences of governments' fiscal distress.
•Local fiscal distress significantly increases the entry of energy-intensive enterprises.•The primary driver is the relaxation of environmental regulations.•The newly available firm registration data is used.•This paper sheds light on the potential environmental consequences of governments' fiscal distress.
The policy of the national smart city (NSC) pilots, a new type of urbanization for future development, has been implemented in China in batches. This paper investigates the mechanism and effects of ...the NSC pilots on the environment. Using the prefecture-level panel data during 2004–2018 period, our multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) estimation shows that the NSC pilots causally mitigate SO
2
(wastewater) pollution by 13.76% (14.36%), which is supported by a series of robustness tests. The mediating effect model indicates that green total factor productivity (GTFP) plays a partial mediating role in mitigating both SO
2
and wastewater emissions, while technological innovation plays a partial mediating role in mitigating wastewater emissions. After introducing the two mediating channels into the multi-period DID model, the reduction effect for SO
2
and wastewater emissions drops to 11.04% (1-
e
− 0.117
) and 12.1% (1-
e
− 0.129
), respectively. Comparatively, the NSC pilots contribute to the improvement of GTFP and GTFP takes the major mediating role in reducing SO
2
and wastewater pollution. The heterogeneous effects of the NSC pilots show that the mitigation effect is more pronounced in cities with strong fiscal support, cities with abundant human capital, and cities with high R&D expenditure. Based on these novel findings, this study provides some policy implications for achieving better mitigation effects.
As part of an effort to explore and incentivize the development of innovation-driven, green and low-carbon cities, China implemented the innovative city pilot policy (ICPP) in 2008. Using the ICPP as ...a quasi-natural experiment, we investigate whether and through which channels the ICPP reduces corporate carbon intensity. To do this, we employ a staggered difference-in-differences (DID) econometric method and find that the ICPP indeed mitigates corporate carbon intensity. This relationship is shown to be quite robust using various alternative specifications of the DID analysis. The reduction effect on corporate carbon intensity is more pronounced for private firms, polluting firms, and capital-intensive firms, showing a convergence trend towards technology-intensive and clean firms. We find the ICPP reduces corporate intensity by enhancing corporate innovation and increasing the value-added rate (i.e. corporate upgrading). Based on these novel findings, we draw out policy implications for carbon neutrality, shedding light on pathways for addressing climate change and achieving sustainable development.
Key policy insights
Carbon neutrality is a long-term and ambitious target. Achieving this target requires the coordination and integration of multiple climate instruments. Among these, technological progress (e.g. renewable energy substitution and improved carbon efficiency) determines the overall cost of carbon neutrality. And innovation support policies should be included in the optimal climate policy package.
Innovation policy can promote knowledge spillovers and long-term economic growth, as well as address environmental externalities of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, thereby providing a cost-effective way of combating climate change.
Empirical evidence suggests that the ICPP implemented in China significantly reduces corporate carbon intensity and thus has promising prospects for the carbon-neutral target. The policy help firms enhance their innovation activities and facilitate corporate upgrading.
As other emerging economies also face the sharp trade-off between climate change mitigation and economic growth, they can learn from this centrally-planned and locally-led innovation policy and lead their development mode onto a cleaner and decarbonized path.
China's carbon neutrality target requires early carbon decoupling of economic growth. Utilizing the input-output and programming technique, we investigate the carbon mitigation potential of ...industrial restructuring along with the substitution of non-fossil energy for electric production. Given the constraints of manufacturing stabilization and employment volatility magnitude, this paper finds that industrial restructuring can mitigate carbon emissions by 7.47 %. Besides, non-fossil energy substitution in electric production can strengthen the inhibiting effect, reducing carbon emissions from 7.47 % (currently about 31.5 % for non-fossil power generation) to 28.99 % (about 80 % in the future). This paper also simulates several scenarios for growth rates and estimates the prospective carbon reduction for the fourteenth Five-Year Plan in China. We indicate that the rising share of non-fossil energy is the linchpin to reducing energy-related carbon emissions, which can achieve absolute decoupling if the share of non-fossil energy in power generation reaches 67.1 % under different growth scenarios. This paper argues that carbon-based performance indicators, e.g., carbon intensity and carbon emissions, are more appropriate for local bureaucrats than energy-based ones. We provide valuable implications for the carbon decoupling path.
•This paper combines the input-output technique and programming model.•Industrial restructuring can mitigate carbon emissions by 7.47 %.•Non-fossil energy substitution can further amplify the emission reduction effect.•The rising share of non-fossil fuels is the linchpin to achieving absolute decoupling.
Land resource allocation is closely related to economic activities, which can be affected by environmental regulation. Exploiting the variation in regulation intensity coming from the new ...Environmental Protection Law (EPL) across time, regions, and industries, we construct a difference-in-difference-in-differences (DDD) model to investigate the impact of environmental regulation on land resource allocation in China. We find that when faced with stringent environmental regulation, local governments are inclined to reduce land supply for polluting industries, which is robust using alternative specifications. Besides, local governments raise the price and the average size of land parcels sold to polluting firms, along with remote land locations and low land quality. Further evidence indicates that local officials, with fewer promotion incentives, tend to reduce land supply for polluting industries substantially, whereas they are more likely to increase land supply for polluting industries under increased economic growth (fiscal) pressure. This study reveals that environmental regulation can direct local land resource allocation towards a green path. Local governments can employ land supply tools to implement environmental governance.
•Environmental regulation can shape local land resource allocation in China.•Land parcels sold to polluting firms are larger, more expensive, and of poorer quality.•Local officials with fewer promotion incentives substantially reduce land supply for polluting industries.•Local governments could use land resources to implement environmental governance.
Promoting sustainable development in resource-based regions is an essential issue among policymakers. Yet little is known about the effect of sustainable development strategies on income inequality. ...Leveraging the implementation of the National Sustainable Development Plan for Resource-Based Cities (2013–2020) (SDP) as a quasi-natural experiment, we adopt a difference-in-differences (DID) approach to investigate the impact of a sustainable development policy on income inequality. This paper finds that the SDP can reduce income inequality by 8.3 percentage points in resource-based cities on average, which is statistically and economically significant. The mediation effect model shows that reducing natural resource dependence is one potential and vital mechanism. Also, we find that the reduction effect of the SDP on income inequality is more pronounced in central and western regions, in growing-type and mature-type resource-based cities, and in energy-based and mineral-based cities. This paper provides valuable policy implications for developing countries to reduce income inequality and promote sustainable development.
•The SDP can significantly reduce income inequality in resource-based cities.•Declining natural resource dependence is one potential mechanism.•The reduction effect is pronounced in western regions, in mature-type resource-based cities, and in mineral-based cities.
Present granite landform characteristics and distribution are the integrated result of climate, tectonics and lithology. Various types of granite landforms in China signify climate zonality and ...differential vertical movement of earth surface, while published research results on Chinese granite landforms are very rare, especially in international journals. Based on the process analysis of chemical weathering and physical disintegration, four granite landform regions in China are classified according to the present climate regime. On the Tibetan Plateau, the cold and freezing climate induced periglacial landscapes; the northeast region is characterized by physical disintegration and low round mounds are widespread; in the northwest region controlled by arid climate, wind-carved minor landscapes are extremely prominent. The most spectacular granite landscapes in China are presented in southeast as a result of Iongtime chemical weathering under humid and warm conditions, as well as the differential uplift after Neogene. Correlating the weathering crust in southern China, Tibetan Plateau and India, a possible unified planation surface in Neogene is proposed. With corestones as indicators of original weathering front, the differential uplift extent of dissected planation surfaces can be estimated. At least three landforms implying uplift can be identified in southeastern China, with elevations of 300-400 m, 2000 m and 3600 m above the sea level respectively.
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