Positive or negative externalities? Exploring the spatial spillover and industrial agglomeration threshold effects of environmental regulation on haze pollution in China

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yihang Zhao ◽  
Chen Liang ◽  
Xinlong Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Regulation ◽  
Industrial Agglomeration ◽  
Threshold Effects ◽  
Negative Externalities ◽  
Spatial Spillover ◽  
Haze Pollution

scholarly journals A spatial econometric empirical research on the impact of industrial agglomeration on haze pollution in China

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 1305-1312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Zhao ◽  
Xiaoxi Cao ◽  
Tao Ma
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Regulation ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
Industrial Agglomeration ◽  
Spatial Error ◽  
Spatial Lag Model ◽  
Haze Pollution ◽  
The Government ◽  
Obvious Manner ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Based on statistical data on 30 provincial administrative regions in China from 2000 to 2016, this paper conducts an empirical study of the impact of industrial agglomeration on haze pollution using the spatial Dubin model (SDM), spatial lag model (SLM), and spatial error model (SEM). The findings are as follows: (1) Industrial agglomeration can effectively reduce the degree of haze pollution. (2) Haze pollution has an inverted U-shaped relationship with economic development and population agglomeration. (3) The secondary industry has a positive correlation with haze pollution, while the tertiary industry can reduce haze pollution but not in an obvious manner. (4) The level of innovation and urbanization can help to reduce haze pollution, and the level of economic opening up and carbon dioxide emissions can exacerbate haze pollution. (5) Due to the insufficient commercialization of scientific and technological achievements, investment in science and technology is not obviously effective in preventing and controlling haze pollution. The relationship between environmental regulation and haze pollution is still unclear due to regional differences and the varied effectiveness of law enforcement. The study suggests that the government should guide industrial agglomeration in a reasonable manner, improve joint prevention and control across regions, and strengthen environmental regulation to prevent and control haze pollution.

scholarly journals Haze Pollution Levels, Spatial Spillover Influence, and Impacts of the Digital Economy: Empirical Evidence from China

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 9076
Author(s):  
Jie Zhou ◽  
Hanlin Lan ◽  
Cheng Zhao ◽  
Jianping Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Eastern China ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Digital Economy ◽  
Mediating Effect ◽  
Energy Structure ◽  
Spatial Spillover ◽  
Pollution Levels ◽  
Haze Pollution

With the development of digital technologies such as the Internet and digital industries such as e-commerce, the digital economy has become a new form of economic and social development, which has brought forth a new perspective for environmental governance, energy conservation, and emission reduction. Based on data from 30 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2018, this study applies the space and threshold models to empirically examine the digital economy’s influence on haze pollution and its spatial spillover. Furthermore, it investigates the spatial diffusion effect of regional digital economic development and haze pollution by constructing a spatial weight matrix. Subsequently, an instrumental variable robustness test is performed. Results indicate the following: (1) Haze pollution has spatial spillover effects and high emission aggregation characteristics, with haze pollution in neighbouring provinces significantly aggravating pollution levels in the focal province. (2) China’s digital economy has positively impacted haze pollution, with digital economic development having a significant effect (i.e., most prominent in eastern China) on reducing haze pollution. (3) Changing the energy structure and supporting innovation can restrain haze pollution, and the digital economy can reduce the path mechanism of haze pollution through the mediating effect of an advanced industrial structure. It shows a non-linear characteristic that the influence of haze reduction continues to weaken. Thus, policymakers should include the digital economy as a mechanism for ecologically sustainable development in haze pollution control.

scholarly journals Threshold Effect in the Relationship between Environmental Regulations and Haze Pollution: Empirical Evidence from PSTR Estimation

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (23) ◽  
pp. 12423
Author(s):  
Yonglian Chang ◽  
Yingjun Huang ◽  
Manman Li ◽  
Zhengmin Duan
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Environmental Regulations ◽  
Regional Distribution ◽  
Electricity Consumption ◽  
Threshold Effect ◽  
Smooth Transition ◽  
Threshold Effects ◽  
Regulatory Policies ◽  
Haze Pollution ◽  
The Impact

The impact of environmental regulations (ER) on haze pollution control has been continuously debated in the field of sustainable development. This paper explores the direct and indirect threshold effects of ER on haze pollution, and five underlying mechanisms—technological innovation (TI), industrial structure (IS), foreign direct investment (FDI), urbanization (UR), and electricity consumption (EC)—are adopted to investigate the indirect threshold effects. Panel data, over the period 2008–2018, of 284 Chinese cities were used and the threshold effects were predicted endogenously based on the panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model. The results showed the following: (1) For the direct threshold effect, there exists a U-shaped relationship between ER and haze pollution. ER significantly reduced haze pollution when ER < 38.86 due to “cost effects”. However, ER increased haze pollution after the threshold owing to the “green paradox”, which was not significant. (2) For the indirect threshold effect, when TI = 0.37, IS = 39.61, FDI = 7.25, and UR = 42.86, the relationships between ER and haze pollution changed. The changes and corresponding reasons for the indirect threshold effects are discussed in detail. (3) After a comprehensive analysis, the threshold effects have obvious regional distribution characteristics and internal connections. Finally, based on the results, it is essential for governments to enact appropriate environmental regulatory policies and enhance inter-regional synergies in environmental governance.

scholarly journals Environmental Regulation, Technological Innovation and Industrial Environmental Efficiency : An Empirical Study Based on Chinese Cement Industry

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongxing Tu ◽  
Songtao Xu ◽  
Xu Xiao
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Regulation ◽  
Technological Innovation ◽  
Environmental Efficiency ◽  
Cement Industry ◽  
Industrial Agglomeration ◽  
Substantial Impact ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Saving Effect ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Positive Effect

Abstract Using DEA-Tobit model, the paper empirically analyzes the impact of environmental regulation and technological innovation on industrial environmental efficiency with the data from Chinese Cement Industry. The results show that both environmental regulation and technological innovation all have a significant role in promoting the environmental efficiency of cement industry. Among all the influencing factors, the improvement of pollution disposal capacity has the biggest positive effect on environmental efficiency, while the energy-saving effect caused by environmental regulation is not obvious, the factor endowment structure has no substantial impact on environmental efficiency. Adhering to the strategy of "reducing emissions mainly and saving energy as auxiliary", continuously optimizing the energy consumption structure, raising the level of industrialization and industrial agglomeration are conducive to the sustainable development of China’s cement industry.

scholarly journals The Impact of Haze Pollution on Regional Eco-Economic Treatment Efficiency in China: An Environmental Regulation Perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (21) ◽  
pp. 4059 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Hou ◽  
Yifang An ◽  
Hongfeng Song ◽  
Jiancheng Chen
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Regulation ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Critical Mass ◽  
Heterogeneous Structure ◽  
Treatment Efficiency ◽  
Regional Heterogeneity ◽  
Haze Pollution ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Province Level ◽  
Great Wall

“The Gray Great Wall” formed by haze pollution is an increasingly serious issue in China, and the resulting air pollution has brought severe challenges to human health, the socio-economy and the world ecosystem. Based on the facts above, this paper uses China’s province-level panel data from 2009 to 2016, systematically measures the heterogeneous structure of regional ecological economic (eco-economic) treatment efficiency through a Super Slacks-Based Measure (SBM) model and dynamic threshold models, and analyzes the forcing mechanism of haze pollution pressure on regional eco-economic treatment efficiency from an environmental regulation perspective. Results indicated that China’s eco-economic treatment has been vigorously promoted, which is significantly conducive to green growth upgrading. However, the process has a large developmental scope due to regional heterogeneity. Interestingly, the forcing impact of haze pollution on regional eco-economic treatment efficiency is limited by the “critical mass” of environmental regulations: a weak degree of regulation will facilitate an increase in regional eco-economic treatment efficiency through the forcing effect of haze pollution pressure. Once environmental regulation reaches a critical level, a stronger degree of regulation will suppress the forcing effect of haze pollution in turn and it will decrease the regional eco-economic treatment efficiency. This paper endeavors to clarify the differences, suitability and dependency in the process of ecological transformation for Chinese local governments in different regions and provide policy references for a regional ecological transformation matching system.

scholarly journals The Spatial Spillover Effects of Environmental Regulation on China’s Industrial Green Growth Performance

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiping Wang ◽  
Moyang Li
Keyword(s):  
Growth Performance ◽  
Environmental Regulation ◽  
Stochastic Frontier Analysis ◽  
Stochastic Frontier ◽  
Spillover Effect ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Green Growth ◽  
Frontier Analysis ◽  
Spatial Spillover ◽  
Spatial Spillover Effects

This study investigated the spatial spillover effects of environmental regulation (ER) on industrial green growth performance (IGGP) in China. Firstly, a parametric stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) was estimated to measure IGGP using the data of China’s 30 provincial industry sectors during 2000–2014. Then, considering the space–time characteristics in IGGP, the spatial spillover effects of three types of ER, namely, administrative environmental regulation (AER), market-based environmental regulation (MER), and voluntary environmental regulation (VER), on IGGP was examined by employing spatial Durbin model (SDM). The main findings are: (1) the IGGP is low but shows a trend of continuous improvement and there is a significant disparity and spatial autocorrelations amongst regions; (2) the spillover effects of the three types of ER are different, specifically, the spillover effects of AER are significant negative, while the effects of MER and VER are both significant positive. The difference between the latter two is that the positive spillover effect of MER on IGGP is so large to outperform the negative direct effect, while the effect of VER is very minor. Based on these findings, relevant policy suggestions are presented to balance industrial economic and environmental protection in order to promote IGGP.

scholarly journals Spatial Association Effect of Haze Pollution in Cheng-Yu Urban Agglomeration

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Degang Zhang ◽  
Yuanquan Lu ◽  
Yuan Tian
Keyword(s):  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Spatial Association ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Urban Agglomeration ◽  
Association Network ◽  
Causality Test ◽  
Spatial Spillover ◽  
Haze Pollution ◽  
Spatial Spillover Effects ◽  
Four Blocks

Abstract This study takes a network perspective to examine the spatial spillover effects of haze pollution in Cheng-Yu urban agglomeration which is the fourth largest urban agglomeration and a comprehensive demonstration zone of new urbanization in China. Firstly, we use Granger causality test to construct haze pollution spatial association network, and then we apply social network analysis to reveal the structural characteristics of this network. The results show that: haze pollution in Cheng-Yu urban agglomeration is a complex multithreaded network. Chongqing, Chengdu, Guang’an, Luzhou, Deyang and Nanchong are the centers of the network, sending and transmitting the most relationships. The haze pollution spatial association network can be divided into net beneficiary block, net overflow block, bilateral overflow block and broker block. These four blocks present obvious geographical distribution characteristics and are partly related to the difference of urbanization. The above results contribute by illustrating the current spatial spillover situation of haze pollution and provide a theoretical foundation for the government that it should simultaneously consider cities’ statues and their spatial spillover effects in the network rather than simple geographic proximity when formulating future haze pollution control policies in urban agglomeration.

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