Environmental accidents and environmental legislation in China: Evidence from provincial panel data (1997–2014)

Abstract

Knowledge on environmental disasters and legislation is limited. I narrow this knowledge gap by examining the relationship between environmental accidents and climate legislation in the People's Republic of China. I offer an account of local environmental accidents and local environmental legislation and focus on political centralization to understand bill submission and bill enactment in local climate legislation in China. I built a unique provincial panel dataset for the period of 1997-2014 (N = 527) for the data analysis and found that environmental accidents are correlated with local climate legislation. I also discuss how local government leaders make rational choices under the incentive system in the Chinese bureaucracy in the wake of environmental accidents.