Do Environmental Regulations Improve Industrial Efficiency?

This study was based on research on the impact of environmental regulation on industrial efficiency in 30 provinces from 2005 to 2017 in China. For the explained variables, the industrial efficiency of the DEA-Malmquist method was utilized for the decomposition and measurement of overall factor productivity, and government environmental governance variables were added as instrumental variables for two-stage least-squares regression. In addition, environmental regulatory intensity and year were utilized as threshold variables for the threshold test. In the benchmark regression, environmental regulation harms regional industrial efficiency. However, according to the IV estimation of government environmental governance variables, environmental regulation has a positive effect on the transformation of regional industrial efficiency. The influence of environmental regulation on industrial efficiency will be first suppressed and then promoted with the gradual increase of regulatory intensity. Furthermore, there is significant spatial heterogeneity in the impact of environmental regulations.

Reglementierte Berufe: Einordnung der Länderempfehlungen der Europäischen Kommission zum Reformbedarf des Regulierungsrahmens in Deutschland

In its country-specific recommendations for Germany, the European Commission regularly calls for reform in the area of regulated professions. These reform demands focus in particular on the business-related services provided by lawyers, tax advisors, auditors, architects or civil engineers. In doing so, the Commission pursues the thesis that the protection of similar general interests in the case of the domestic regulatory approach with binding professional access rules and a mandatory chamber system is accompanied by a comparatively high regulatory intensity and unnecessarily restricts competition. The Commission bases this assumption on different direct and indirect regulatory and competition indicators. This paper provides an overview of the strengths and weaknesses of these indicators and concludes that these do not allow for a robust conclusion on below-average competition intensity in professional services in Germany.

Nonmarket Responses to Regulation: A Signaling Theory Approach

We examine how regulatory intensity and increases in regulation affect the nonmarket activities of firms. Using a signaling theory perspective, we seek to better understand how firms respond to regulation in terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate political activity (CPA), the two main pillars of nonmarket activity. Examination of both CSR and CPA in concert rather than in isolation provides insights into whether they are complements or substitutes. We use textual analysis of the US Code of Federal Regulations to measure regulatory intensity and increases in regulation. Based on a sample of 331 S&P 500 firms for the period 1998–2014, our findings suggest that regulatory intensity leads to more nonmarket responses from firms. We also find support for nonlinear relationships between CSR and CPA.

Mapping the patchy legislative landscape of non-native tree species in Europe

Europe has a history rich in examples of successful and problematic introductions of trees with a native origin outside of Europe (non-native trees, NNT). Many international legal frameworks such as treaties and conventions and also the European Union have responded to the global concern about potential negative impacts of NNT that may become invasive in natural ecosystems. It is, however, national and regional legislation in particular that affects current and future management decisions in the forest sector and shapes the landscapes of Europe. We identified all relevant legal instruments regulating NNT, the different legal approaches and the regulatory intensity in 40 European countries (no microstates). Information on hard and effective soft law instruments were collected by means of a targeted questionnaire and consultation of international and national legislation information systems and databases. In total, 335 relevant legal instruments were in place in June/July 2019 to regulate the use of NNT in the investigated 116 geopolitical legal units (countries as well as sub-national regions with their own legislation). Countries and regions were empirically categorized according to ad hoc-defined legislation indicators. These indicators pay respect to the general bans on the introduction of non-native species, the generally allowed and prohibited NNT, approval mechanisms and specific areas or cases where NNT are restricted or prohibited. Our study revealed a very diverse landscape of legal frameworks across Europe, with a large variety of approaches to regulating NNT being pursued and the intensity of restriction ranging from very few restrictions on species choice and plantation surface area to the complete banning of NNT from forests. The main conclusion is that there is a clear need for more co-ordinated, science-based policies both at the local and international levels to enhance the advantages of NNT and mitigate potential negative effects.

Regulatory patterns in international pork trade and similarity with the EU SPS/TBT standards

Aim of study: With the increasing protagonism of non-tariff measures (NTMs) in trade policy, better indexes are needed to depict the prevalence and similarity of NTMs across countries for further use in trade impact assessments.Area of study: Worldwide, with special focus on the European Union (EU)Material and methods: Using the TRAINS database on NTMs, we calculated and proposed some indicators, stressing both regulatory intensity and diversity, as well as similarity of regulatory patterns between trade partners. Our application focuses on pork trade and main importers, amongst which, the EU is singled out.Main results: We found a high level of heterogeneity in NTMs’ application, both, in the number and variety of measures. The bilateral similarity was relatively low, such as only 30% of sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) and 20% of technical barriers to trade were shared, providing ground and incentive for discussing trade policy harmonization. Our analysis suggests that SPS regulations prevail in those sectors and countries more engaged in trade, while a negative correlation with tariffs raises protectionism concerns. Our bilateral indicators rank country pairs according to the similarity of their regulatory patterns. The EU, for instance, is closer in SPS regulations to China or USA than to Canada or New Zealand, which will require actions in the context of the bilateral trade agreements in course.Research highlights: The low similarity of regulatory patterns evidence the challenges faced by policy makers to streamline technical regulations. For an accurate representation of regulatory patterns and their impact on trade, both uni- and bilateral indicators need to be considered.

An Inverted-U Impact of Environmental Regulations on Carbon Emissions in China’s Iron and Steel Industry: Mechanisms of Synergy and Innovation Effects

Based on a panel data of China’s iron and steel (IS) industry from 2000 to 2014, this paper explores the impact of environmental regulations on CO2 emissions in the industry. The results show that there is a clear inverted-U relationship between environmental regulations and CO2 emissions in the IS industry. Additionally, there are regional heterogeneity and regulatory intensity on the impact of environmental regulations on CO2 emissions. The results in the eastern region are consistent with the whole sample results, while the upward trend in the central region and the downward trend in the western region together lay the basis for the inverted-U shape of the whole sample. High environmental regulations affect CO2 emissions in an inverted-U shape, while low environmental regulations present a U shape. The mechanisms of environmental regulations affecting CO2 emissions are synergy effect and technological innovation effect. Finally, this paper proposes some policy recommendations according to the above findings.

Neuropsychological Study of Resilience of School Graduates of the Region of Ecological Trouble

The article presents the data of neuropsychological research in the framework of a comprehensive study of the resilience of the youth population (secondary school graduates) of the region of ecological trouble – Zabajkal‘skij kraj. The authors consider resilience as a systemic characteristic of the system ‘man–life environment’. The model of resilience including psychophysiological, psychological and personal levels is offered. Standardized psychometric and neuropsychological methods are used to evaluate level’s indicators. School graduates residing in ecologically unfavorable territories identified drift of psychophysiological level in the direction of lower standards and regulatory intensity indicators of psychological and personal levels ofresilience. Using a neuropsychological approach with the aim of finding mechanisms to a reduction of the indicators of the psycho-physiological level of resilience allowed us to determine the presence of signs of deficiency of certain brain areas (posterior frontal and parietal). It was established that with the increase of degree of the ecology trouble territories of research, there is a reliable increase of mistakes ofaccomplishment by test subjects who live on them, the neuropsychological tests investigating visually spatial functions, and also functions of the serial organization of mental activity. Though there is the presence of correlations between indicators of different levels of resilience, but the rating and the explanation by virtue of their disparate data is difficult. The search for correlates, in this case, can be more aimed at proving the possibility of the existence of the proposed model of resilience, its consistency and productivity of the instruments that are used for its study. Keywords: neuropsychological study, resilience, level of resilience, ecological trouble, secondary school graduates

Builders, Politicians, and Election Finance

In many developing countries, politicians often turn to private firms for illicit election finance. In sectors where firms are highly regulated, politicians can exchange policy discretion or regulatory favours for financial support during elections. This chapter explores this dynamic by focusing on the role of the construction sector in India, a domain where regulatory intensity is high. Specifically, we argue that builders will experience a short-term liquidity crunch as elections approach because of their need to re-route funds to campaigns as a form of indirect election finance. We use variation in the demand for cement, the indispensable ingredient for construction, to investigate the presence of an electoral cycle in building activity consistent with this logic. Using a novel monthly-level dataset, we demonstrate that cement consumption does exhibit a political business cycle supportive of our hypothesis.