Does the Squeaky Wheel Get More Grease? The Direct and Indirect Effects of Citizen Participation on Environmental Governance in China
American Economic Review
vol. 114,
no. 3, March 2024
(pp. 815-50)
Abstract
We conducted a nationwide field experiment in China to evaluate the direct and indirect impacts of assigning firms to public or private citizen appeals when they violate pollution standards. There are three main findings. First, public appeals to the regulator through social media substantially reduce violations and pollution emissions, while private appeals cause more modest environmental improvements. Second, public appeals appear to tilt regulators' focus away from facilitating economic growth and toward avoiding pollution-induced public unrest. Third, pollution reductions by treated firms are not offset by control firms, based on randomly varying the proportion of treated firms at the prefecture level.Citation
Buntaine, Mark T., Michael Greenstone, Guojun He, Mengdi Liu, Shaoda Wang, and Bing Zhang. 2024. "Does the Squeaky Wheel Get More Grease? The Direct and Indirect Effects of Citizen Participation on Environmental Governance in China." American Economic Review, 114 (3): 815-50. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20221215Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D22 Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
- L82 Entertainment; Media
- P28 Socialist Systems and Transitional Economies: Natural Resources; Energy; Environment
- P31 Socialist Enterprises and Their Transitions
- Q52 Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects
- Q53 Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
- Q58 Environmental Economics: Government Policy