The Impact of Government and Public Dual-Subject Environmental Concerns on Urban Haze Pollution: An Empirical Research on 279 Cities in China

Abstract

Based on 279 cities in China from 2011 to 2019 as research samples, this study used a fixed-effect regression model to investigate the influence of government and public dual-subject environmental concerns on urban haze pollution. The results show that: (1) Government and public environmental concerns have a significant negative impact on urban haze pollution. The results are still valid after a series of robustness tests and controlling for endogenous problems. (2) Further research found that dual-subject environmental concerns have a stronger negative effect on urban haze pollution in areas where there is a low level of Internet development and in western regions. (3) Through the test of the intermediary mechanism, it can be seen that the environmental concerns of the government and the public can reduce haze pollution by reducing policy uncertainty and capital element misallocation. In general, the policy effect is greater than the capital allocation effect. The research conclusions of this study will help to deepen the interpretation of the role of the government and the public in environmental governance and also provide a reference for cities to further promote haze governance.

Does negative environmental performance feedback induce substantive green innovation? The moderating roles of external regulations and internal incentive

“…The finding of Hypothesis 2 supports the view of “innovation offset effect,” which enriches the institutional theory and answers the above debate from a new perspective. In addition, although several scholars have discussed the role of public environmental concern on environmental governance (e.g., curbing haze pollution [Ma et al, 2022], improving air quality [Lu et al, 2018], and promoting green investments [Gu et al, 2021]), little attention has been paid to substantive GI. The finding of Hypothesis 3 enriches the institutional theory from an informal regulation perspective.…”

“…The finding of Hypothesis 2 supports the view of "innovation offset effect," which enriches the institutional theory and answers the above debate from a new perspective. In addition, although several scholars have discussed the role of public environmental concern on environmental governance (e.g., curbing haze pollution [Ma et al, 2022],…”

How do government environmental concerns affect haze pollution?

“…Extremely few authors currently focus on the haze problem from the perspective of government environmental concerns. Ma et al (2022) combined public environmental concerns and government environmental concerns to study the effects on haze and concluded that dual-subject environmental concerns have a significant inhibitory effect on haze. Farooq et al (2021) based on data from Asian companies found that government environmental concerns drive renewable energy generation, renewable energy consumption and green growth productivity, ensuring the country's sustainable development.…”

“…That is why many scholars finally conclude that the environmental concerns of residents can only have a haze reduction effect in a very short period of time. Although Ma et al (2022) noted the influence of government environmental concerns on haze, they mainly focused on how government environmental concerns and public environmental concerns can coordinate to govern the environment. They have not explored whether government environmental concerns can really be translated into environmental policies, nor have they conducted a deeper study of the theories that influence such conversion, which provides room for this paper to investigate.…”