China’s Environmental Battles: Mistakes and Milestones
Paper Session
Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM (CST)
- Chair: Qihong Liu, University of Oklahoma
When Growth Stumbles, Pollute? Trade War and Environmental Enforcement
Abstract
This paper investigates how political incentives affect environmental regulation and enforcement. Using the U.S.-China trade war as a natural experiment, we find that higher U.S. tariffs worsen air quality in China. The city-level analysis shows that a 1% increase in the tariff burden leads to 0.9% and 0.7% increases in SO2 and PM2.5, respectively. Firm-level emission data generate similar results. Interestingly, the hourly monitor-level air quality data suggests that the pollution increases are concentrated at night. We hypothesize that the surprising findings can be largely attributed to the lenient environmental policies adopted by local governments when faced with the risks of economic downturn. We provide suggestive evidence that cities more exposed to the U.S. tariffs attach less emphasis on environmental regulations in local government reports and charge fewer fines on firms violating environmental regulations. Cities with native and older party secretaries and areas closer to province boundaries exhibit a less severe increase in pollution during the trade war. Our findings are relevant as China scrambles to maintain growth in the face of economic headwinds.Urban Forests and Environmental Health Risks: Evidence from a Greener Beijing
Abstract
Forests accompany the cities we build. There are an estimated 5.5 billion urban trees in the United States. Globally, about 25 percent of urban land is covered by tree canopy. This study examines urban forests as a policy tool for air pollution mitigation. We study a large-scale afforestation program in the city of Beijing, which planted a total of 2 million mu of greenery – roughly the size of Los Angeles – across the city over a decade. We conduct a remote-sensing audit of the program, finding that it contributes to a substantial greening up of the city. This causes significant downwind air quality improvement, reducing average PM2.5 concentration at city population hubs by 4.2 percent. Rapid vegetation growth, however, led to a 7.4 percent increase in pollen exposure. Analysis of medical claims data shows aeroallergens triggered emergency room visits, mirroring well-documented industrial pollution effects though less severe. We offer insight on managing urban forests’ health risks, identifying harmful pollen species and susceptible population subgroups.Media Competition, Media Capture, and Pollution: Evidence from China
Abstract
This paper examines the impacts of media market competition on firms’ pollution in the context of media capture, where firms try to suppress negative news. Exploiting a media reform that forced a large number of newspapers to exit the market in China, we find that polluting firms emitted less pollution and the remaining newspapers reported more pollution-related issues following the newspaper exits. While this finding contradicts the traditional wisdom that a more competitive media market can better serve as a watchdog, it is consistent with a two-sided media market model with multi-homing readers. This two-sided model allows us to focus on competition in advertising rather than in subscriptions. We find increased market power of media relative to advertisers, which makes it more difficult for local firms to buy off negative reporting.Discussant(s)
Melanie Meng Xue
,
London School of Economics
Kathleen Segerson
,
University of Connecticut and NAS
Douglas Almond
,
Columbia University and NBER
David Y. Yang
,
Harvard University and NBER
JEL Classifications
- Q5 - Environmental Economics