Incentives for China's urban mayors to mitigate pollution externalities: The role of the central government and public environmentalism

Zheng, Siqi; Kahn, Matthew E.; Sun, Weizeng; Luo, Danglun

doi:10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2013.09.003

Cited by 332 publications

(131 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

116

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…We find that local GDP growth continues to be the most important factor in determining promotion rates, but that declines in local air pollution and reductions in local industry energy intensity are also statistically significant correlates of promotion chances, especially in relatively richer cities on the east coast (Zheng et al 2014b). Chen, Li, and Lu (2016) evaluate the effectiveness of China's "Two Control Zones" (TCZ) policy.…”

Section: Incentives For Local Officialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Era of Pollution Progress in Urban China?

Zheng

Kahn

2017

Journal of Economic Perspectives

Self Cite

157

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over the last 30 years, China's economy has boomed. This trend has lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese out of poverty but it has also sharply increased local, regional, and global pollution levels. We look at the rise in air pollution over recent decades, and the perhaps surprising finding that in many of China's urban areas, levels of particulates (of less than 10 microns) have been decreasing during the last 10 to 15 years. We then turn to the costs and tradeoffs of air pollution, including costs to human health, reductions in worker productivity, and how people are seeking to reduce their exposure to pollution as shown by compensating differentials in real estate prices and purchases of masks and air filters. We discuss how rising incomes tend to raise the demand for environmental amenities and thus increase political pressure for environmental protection, and then we turn to the policy tools that China has used to reduce pollution. We conclude by arguing that as China's government is preparing for an additional 300 million people to move to urban areas over the next 30 years, it will have a number of opportunities for China to reduce pollution through a shift from manufacturing to services, along with various steps to improve energy efficiency and resource conservation. Overall, it seems that China is on track to improve its environmental performance in the years ahead.

show abstract

Section: Incentives For Local Officialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Era of Pollution Progress in Urban China?

Zheng

Kahn

2017

Journal of Economic Perspectives

Self Cite

157

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Under the incentive for promotion, local officials will do their best to reduce water pollution emissions to hit targets. Zheng et al [26] found that mayors have reduced the total amount of pollution emissions under pressure from the central government and the public during this period. Huang and Xia [27] proved that regional competition affected the intensity of environmental protection from 2002 to 2010 and that environmental regulation is the most effective measure in achieving pollution reduction.…”

Section: Total Amount Control Of Water Pollutantsmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Zheng et al [26] proved that the central government and the public put great pressure on local officials to mitigate pollution externalities from 2004 to 2009. Local governments were asked to reduce emissions to a level that was at least not below this target.…”

Section: Total Amount Control Of Water Pollutantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Water Pollution Policy Regime Shift and Boundary Pollution: Evidence from the Change of Water Pollution Levels in China

Shen

Yang

2017

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Boundary environmental pollution and pollution spillovers are important issues for improving the water quality of trans-boundary rivers. This paper explores the empirical effects of the evolution of the pollution reduction mandates on boundary pollution by studying the change of water pollution levels (as proxied by pH, BOD, COD and NH3-N) of key state monitoring stations from 2004 to 2014. The empirical findings support the existence of boundary pollution and indicate the association between environmental policy and boundary pollution levels using propensity score matching, although the relation is conditional on which water pollution measure is considered. The pollution levels of monitoring stations on provincial borders are significantly higher than those of interior monitoring stations. The pollution of tributaries is more serious than that of the main stream, which was quickly reversed after the pollution reduction mandates changed. The improvement of the water environment showed great differences with the change of policy when we compare the water quality of monitoring stations in the upper reaches of provincial borders with the water quality downstream of provincial borders. Our empirical analysis finds strong evidence of strategic polluting across provincial borders. Local officials may manipulate pollution within their jurisdictions, and the overall pollution reduction target will exacerbate border pollution, whereas water quality inspection can reduce marginal pollution. Finally, we further validate the net impact of the policies on boundary pollution using a difference in difference (DID) approach.

show abstract

“…A structure of traditional rural agriculture and urban industrialization has been shaped by the fast pace of urbanization [36]. In recent decades, the urbanization rate of the population has been widely regarded as an indicator of good governance by both national and provincial level administrations, which represents a mayor's political performance during his/her term of office [37]. Simultaneously, many far-sighted researchers have paid much attention to environmental conservation.…”

Section: Researching Eco-urbanizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated Land Governance for Eco-Urbanization

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

"Eco-urbanization" emphasizes the importance of the ecological and environmental aspects of urbanization, which is to approach a balanced and healthy ecosystem through paying attention to the ecological intercorrelation of many factors. This involves balancing the stocks and utilization of multi-resources and balancing the efficiency and equality of multi-resources allocation to improve the quality of life for both urban and rural areas. In this dynamic process, resource allocations are carried out at different administrative levels, which have posed challenges of developing an integrated approach for eco-urbanization. Due to interaction and intersection of ecological activities among adjacent regions, a complex ecosystem tends to be in a fluid catchment area with dynamic flows of activities that transcend rigid administrative boundaries. The management of ecosystem sensitively impinges on the effectiveness of having an integrated approach of land governance in a comprehensive planning of urban-rural development. This will require scientific findings to support a policy-oriented management approach, which can take account of land use/cover changes (LUCC), ecosystem services and functions, interactive impacts of socio-economic transformation and climatic variations for optimum land use allocation to achieve the objective of ecosystem conservation and socio-economic development for both urban and rural area in a sustainable approach. Three aspects of development are identified as the importance of achieving advanced land governance for eco-urbanization. This paper aims to discuss these in turn: first, to find the adaptive measures in response to the uncertainty of climatic variation; second, to understand and research the scale and level of sustainable consumption for balancing resource saving and consumption; and third, to study ecological intercorrelation among multiple factors. We, therefore, argue that the far insight of "economic growth" via an ecologically-centered approach based on scientific solutions of all three aspects and intergovernmental consultations is important to support land governance for eco-urbanization and to strike a balance between environmental conservation and economic development.

show abstract

Incentives for China's urban mayors to mitigate pollution externalities: The role of the central government and public environmentalism

Cited by 332 publications

References 26 publications

A New Era of Pollution Progress in Urban China?

A New Era of Pollution Progress in Urban China?

The Water Pollution Policy Regime Shift and Boundary Pollution: Evidence from the Change of Water Pollution Levels in China

Integrated Land Governance for Eco-Urbanization

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About