•South American countries have stepped up deforestation regulations and enforcement.•We study potential spillover effects of these regulations for soy and beef.•We find little change in soy or ...pasture expansion patterns due to increased regulations.•We find a decrease in beef imports from more regulated biomes.•Substitution between markets and actors diminish the effectiveness of regulations.
In response to the extensive loss of forests caused by soy and cattle expansion in South America, several countries have increased their legal restrictions on deforestation, and stepped up their enforcement. In addition, in the Brazilian Amazon, new private agreements were initiated in 2006 and 2009 to limit the purchase of soy and cattle linked with deforestation. One concern is that such policies, because they are spatially heterogeneous or focus on a subset of relevant actors, might generate negative spillovers in the form of leakage of agricultural activities and deforestation to less-regulated areas, and/or a redistribution of non-compliant product sales to non-participants. In this study, we use panel data on soy and beef production and trade in agricultural frontiers of South America to examine how changes in deforestation regulations in South America have altered soy and cattle expansion and exports in this region, and to understand how these changes, if they have occurred, influence the overall effectiveness of deforestation regulations. We find no evidence of a change in soy or pasture area expansion patterns due to changes in regulations, except within the Amazon biome where pasture expansion slowed in response to more stringent regulations and coincided with pasture intensification. We do find, however, a decrease in beef imports from biomes with more stringent deforestation regulations. While this decrease may indicate the existence of leakage to countries outside the study area, it is likely offset by pasture intensification, continued opportunities for deforestation, and increasing domestic consumption from these biomes. These results point to the potential role of substitution effects between local and international consumer markets, and between different actors, in diminishing the overall effectiveness of deforestation regulations.
China is gradually changing its pursuit of rapid economic growth into a pursuit of economic development quality. In this context, whether “cyberpower” and “digital China” strategies are truly ...conducive to China's sustainable development still needs to be further tested. This paper constructs China's provincial information and communication technology (ICT) comprehensive development level index from the four dimensions of penetration, coverage, information resources, and business and then innovatively undertakes a theoretical framework integrating ICT, environmental regulations, and green total factor energy efficiency (GTFEE) for the analysis. Using panel data from China's 30 provincial administrative regions from 2006 to 2017, this study explores the direct impact, moderating effect, nonlinear relationship, and regional differences of ICT development on GTFEE. It is indicated that ICT development plays a positive role in promoting GTFEE and that this role is moderated by environmental regulations. The regression results of the dynamic threshold model indicate that diverse environmental regulation intensities lead to different influences of ICT development on GTFEE. Moreover, the impact of ICT development on GTFEE is heterogeneous among different regions. Specifically, the western region may gain more benefits from ICT development by virtue of the late‐mover advantage.
With China's tremendous economic development following its reform and opening-up, the problem of environmental deterioration has become increasingly serious. To achieve a win-win situation between ...economic growth and environmental protection, enterprises are being encouraged to carry out green technology innovation, but due to the risks and uncertainties inherent in it, the government is providing research and development (R&D) subsidies while at the same time implementing environmental regulations. As the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 5 divides green technology innovation into green product innovation and green process innovation, this study focuses on the latter in order to better study its relationship with environmental regulations and government subsidies. We select panel data of 30 provinces and cities in China from 2009 to 2017 (excluding Tibet, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, because of a lack of data) and use the system GMM and threshold-effect model for empirical analysis. The results show that environmental regulations have a U-shape non-linear effect on green process innovation, while government subsidies have a positive role in promoting green process innovation, or the so-called leverage effect. Based on government subsidies, the impact of environmental regulations on green process innovation has a threshold effect, and therefore regulations and subsidies should be increased. In addition, the level of economic development has a U-shape effect of inhibition and then promotion on green process innovation. Overall, the China government should continue to develop its economy, but must not neglect the impact of environmental regulations on technological innovation at the expense of environmental damage.
•Environmental regulations have a U-shaped effect on green process innovation.•Government subsidies have a positive role in promoting green process innovation.•Environmental regulations and government subsidies should be increased.•Economic development has a “U"-shaped effect on green process innovation.•Environmental regulations have a huge impact on technological innovation.
This paper seeks to contribute to the existing business strategy and the environment literature by examining the effect of governance structures on environmental performance within a unique context ...of improving environmental governance, policies, regulations, and management. Specifically, we investigate the extent to which corporate board gender diversity, including the proportion, age, and level of education of female directors, affects environmental performance of Chinese publicly listed corporations. Using one of the largest Chinese data sets to date, consisting of a sample of 383 listed A‐shares from 2011 to 2015 (i.e., observations of 1,674), our findings are threefold. First, we find that the proportion and age of female directors have a positive effect on the overall corporate environmental performance. Second, our findings indicate that the proportion and age of female directors also have a positive effect on the three individual environmental performance components, namely, environmental (a) strategy, (b) implementation, and (c) disclosure. Finally, and by contrast, we do not find any evidence that suggests that the level of education of female directors has any impact on environmental performance, neither the overall environmental performance measure nor its individual components. Our findings have important implication for regulators and policymakers. Our evidence is robust to controlling for alternative measures, other governance and firm‐level control variables, and possible endogeneities. We interpret our findings within a multitheoretical framework that draws insights from agency, legitimacy, neo‐institutional, resource dependence, stakeholder, and tokenism theoretical perspectives.
Given the rapid industrialization and urbanization of China, environmental problems have gradually become major constraints that hinder its sustainable economic development. Moreover, China's ...pollution abatement and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions have been severely affected by pressures coming from domestic environmental appeals and international environmental diplomacy. By using integrated data from the Chinese Industrial Enterprise and the Chinese Enterprise Environmental Survey and Reporting databases, this study constructs comprehensive indicators of pollutant discharge intensity and carbon emissions index at the enterprise level and uses the panel fixed effect model, Kaya identity, and mediation effect model to assess the effects of environmental regulations on pollution abatement and collaborative emissions reduction from the micro-perspective. Results show that these regulations can abate the pollution emissions of Chinese industrial enterprises and verify the effectiveness of environmental policies. These regulations can also efficiently reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of enterprises through pollution abatement. In other words, environmental regulations facilitate a collaborative emissions reduction of pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions from enterprises. Such collaborative emissions reduction effect is also influenced by the energy structure and consumption of enterprises. This paper presents empirical evidence and policy basis for further improving China's environmental regulation policy system and achieving coordinated progress in China's economic development and environmental governance.
•Pollution abatement effect of environmental regulation is investigated.•Collaborative emissions reduction effect of environmental regulation is explored.•Pollution emissions reduce with the enhance of environmental regulation intensity.•Environmental regulation can reduce carbon dioxide emissions.•Collaborative effect is influenced by energy structure and energy consumption.
Some members of Congress, the D.C. Circuit, and the legal academy are promoting a particular, abstract form of cost-benefit analysis for financial regulation: judicially enforced quantification. How ...would CBA work in practice, if applied to specific, important, representative rules, and what is the alternative? Detailed case studies of six rules—(1) disclosure rules under Sarbanes-Oxley section 404; (2) the SECs mutual fund governance reforms; (3) Basel Ill's heightened capital requirements for banks; (4) the Volcker Rule; (5) the SEC's crossborder swap proposals; and (6) the FSA's mortgage reforms—show that precise, reliable, quantified CBA remains unfeasible. Quantified CBA of such rules can be no more than "guesstimated," as it entails (a) causal inferences that are unreliable under standard regulatory conditions; (b) the use of problematic data; and/or (c) the same contestable, assumption-sensitive macroeconomic and/or political modeling used to make monetary policy, which even CBA advocates would exempt from CBA laws. Expert judgment remains an inevitable part of what advocates label "gold-standard" quantified CBA, because finance is central to the economy, is social and political, and is non-stationary. Judicial review of quantified CBA can be expected to do more to camouflage discretionary choices than to discipline agencies or promote democracy.
Outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) in an open economy has gradually become an important source of green innovation (GI). With the rapid development of China’s OFDI, this research studies the ...impact of OFDI on the country’s GI, employing panel data of 30 provinces from 2006 to 2017. We first use the Super-SBM model to measure GI performance and then test the impact of OFDI on GI with the system GMM model. Evidence finds that the negative impact of OFDI on GI is not significant on the whole, but the results of regional regression show that impact of OFDI on GI exhibits obvious regional differences. We then utilize the dynamic threshold panel model to determine the non-linear relationship between OFDI and GI through the perspective of environmental regulation in order to avoid the bias caused by ignoring the impact of institutional factors and time dynamic change. After dividing environmental regulations into command control environmental regulation and market incentive environmental regulation, the research results show that the double threshold effects of both environmental regulations are significant. Command control environmental regulation does not play a role in promoting the effect of OFDI on GI. When the intensity of market incentive environmental regulation is low, OFDI negatively affects GI. Moreover, only when the market incentive regulation shows high intensity can OFDI significantly promote GI. With the continuous growth of China’s OFDI, it is therefore necessary to determine the appropriate environmental regulation to improve the reverse spillover effect of OFDI enterprises on the country’s GI.
This study explores the impact of environmental regulations in China on infant mortality. In 1998, the Chinese government imposed stringent air pollution regulations, in one of the first large-scale ...regulatory attempts in a developing country. We find that the infant mortality rate fell by 20 percent in the treatment cities designated as “Two Control Zones.” The greatest reduction in mortality occurred during the neonatal period, highlighting an important pathophysiologic mechanism, and was largest among infants born to mothers with low levels of education. The finding is robust to various alternative hypotheses and specifications. Further, a falsification test using deaths from causes unrelated to air pollution supports these findings.
Context: The International Health Regulations (IHR) have been the governing framework for global health security for the past decade and are a nearly universally recognized World Health Organization ...(WHO) treaty, with 196 States Parties. In the wake of the Ebola epidemic, major global commissions have cast doubt on the future effectiveness of the IHR and the leadership of the WHO. Methods: We conducted a review of the historical origins of the IHR and their performance over the past 10 years and analyzed all of the ongoing reform panel efforts to provide a series of politically feasible recommendations for fundamental reform. Findings: We propose a series of recommendations with realistic pathways for change. These recommendations focus on the development and strengthening of IHR core capacities; independently assessed metrics; new financing mechanisms; harmonization with the Global Health Security Agenda, Performance of Veterinary Services (PVS) Pathways, the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework, and One Health strategies; public health and clinical workforce development; Emergency Committee transparency and governance; tiered public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) processes; enhanced compliance mechanisms; and an enhanced role for civil society. Conclusions: Empowering the WHO and realizing the IHR's potential will shore up global health security—a vital investment in human and animal health—while reducing the vast economic consequences of the next global health emergency.
Most theoretical models of arousal/regulatory function emphasise the maintenance of homeostasis; consistent with this, most previous research into arousal has concentrated on examining individuals’ ...recovery following the administration of experimentally administered stressors. Here, we take a different approach: we recorded day‐long spontaneous fluctuations in autonomic arousal (indexed via electrocardiogram, heart rate variability and actigraphy) in a cohort of 82 typically developing 12‐month‐old infants while they were at home and awake. Based on the aforementioned models, we hypothesised that extreme high or low arousal states might be more short‐lived than intermediate arousal states. Our results suggested that, contrary to this, both low‐ and high‐arousal states were more persistent than intermediate arousal states. The same pattern was present when the data were viewed over multiple epoch sizes from 1 s to 5 min; over 10–15‐minute time‐scales, high‐arousal states were more persistent than low‐ and intermediate states. One possible explanation for these findings is that extreme arousal states have intrinsically greater hysteresis; another is that, through ‘metastatic’ processes, small initial increases and decreases in arousal can become progressively amplified over time. Rather than exclusively using experimental paradigms to study recovery, we argue that future research should also use naturalistic data to study the mechanisms through which states can be maintained or amplified over time.
We recorded naturalistic fluctuations in autonomic arousal in 12‐month‐olds while they were at home. We found that, across multiple time‐scales, extreme high‐ or low‐arousal states were more persistent than intermediate arousal states. One explanation for this is that extreme arousal states may have intrinsically greater hysteresis; another is that, through ‘metastatic’ processes, small initial increases and decreases in arousal can become progressively amplified over time.
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