Research On Influencing Factors And Policy Intervention Of Urban Resident PM2.5 Reduction Behavior

Accompanied with rapid development of industrialization and urbanization and a large consumption of coal and other natural resource, haze pollution strikes most areas of China and has become more frequently in recent years. The haze pollution has already become one of the most severe atmospheric problems in China since the 21st century. According to "Green Paper on Climate Change" issued by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, national attention to haze problem has risen to an unprecedented strategic height. Li Keqiang, the prime minister of China, also proposed resolutely to win "blue sky defense" in the 2017 government working report.The "pain of breathing" warn people: haze governance is extremely urgent. Although the studies regarding to haze governance around the world are still intricate and complex, there is no denying that haze improvement rooted in the source of PM2.5 emissions reduction. It shows that for urban areas, resident daily consumption activities are important sources of PM2.5 emission, which has an unshakable responsibility for haze pollution. Hence, paying full attentions to resident PM2.5 emissions and guiding urban resident's PM2.5 reduction behaviors are effective haze control measures at present, and the space of emission reduction is large. According to the viewpoint of behavioral intervention strategy, focusing on the influencing factors based on individual behaviors can affect behavior twice as much as possible. However,few studies have paid attention to the resident PM2.5 reduction behavior and its influencing factors. Considering that the resident PM2.5 emission behavior belongs to individual pro-environmental areas, the paper will draw on relevant pro-environment behavior theories and achievements and focus on to examine the influencing factors and mechanism of resident PM2.5 reduction behavior to improve haze theories and research system based on the questionnaire data from the urban residents of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Yangtze River delta and the Cheng-Yu area. In practice,it is expected that encourag more resident to participate in PM2.5 reduction behaviors through targeted adjustment of the influencing factors, thus reducing PM2.5 level and improving urban haze pollution. Based on literature review, empirical analysis and simulation analysis, the study is conducted as follows:(1) Studying the influencing factors of urban resident PM2.5 reduction behavior.Based on TPB, VBN and ABC theories, the concept model of PM2.5 reduction behavior was constructed. Then the paper performed an empirical research applying the structural equation model and hierarchical regression analysis based on 912 survey data collected from 3 serious haze areas. The results found that the influencing factors of urban resident PM2.5 reduction behavior coverd the individual psychology,behavioral control and external policy, etc., most of which influence the actual behavior via PM2.5 intentions. Among them, the individual psychological variables include rational variables (attitude, social norm, perceived behavioral control) and emotional variables (environmental value, environmental concern, moral norm),which directly or indirectly affect resident's PM2.5 reduction intention and behavior.It indicates the necessity to combine "rule of law" and "rule of virtue" in resident PM2.5 reduction; The behavioral control variable mainly refers to perceived behavioral control, which, in addition to directly affecting resident PM2.5 reduction intention, also significantly moderate the relationship between resident PM2.5 reduction intention and actual behavior; External policy variable contains three kinds of policy: command control, economic incentive and education guidance, which respectively moderate PM2.5 reduction intention-behavior on different extent.(2) The difference analysis of influencing factors between urban resident PM2.5 reduction behaviors. Urban resident PM2.5 reduction behavior is a composite concept,and the specific influencing factors regarding to each behavior will be different. In this paper, two resident vehicular PM2.5 reduction behaviors, taking public transportation and purchasing new energy vehicles, were chosen to carry on an in-depth comparative analysis. The paper established an urban resident vehicular PM2.5 reduction intention concept model based on TPB and NAM theory, and performed hierarchical regression and moderating effect analysis based on sample data of 595 public transportation adoption and 580 new energy vehicle purchase behaviors. The results found that individual psychological variables, such as attitude,social norm and moral norm, can significantly affect the two vehicular PM2.5 reduction behaviors, and there are little differences in each behavior; whereas, the influence of perceived behavioral control are inconsistent across two behaviors. It contains two aspect,"self-efficacy" and "perceived control",which directly or indirectly affect each vehicular PM2.5 reduction intention respectively. Additionally,two PBC components show different effects across two behaviors when in low and high levels. It suggested that PBC should be highlighted for different PM2.5 reduction behaviors.(3) The dynamic impact analysis of external policies on urban resident PM2.5 reduction behavior. Based on the static analysis of the empirical research, the paper verified the impact of external policies on resident PM2.5 reduction behavior in a long run. According to the empirical results, the paper constructed an urban resident PM2.5 reduction behavior simulation model based on multi-agents, and achieved simulation analysis by virtue of Matlab and artificial neural network. The results found that the interaction between resident Agent and Agent can influence their PM2.5 reduction intention and stabilize to a fixed value eventually. In addition, from the long-term perspective, three kinds of external policies all can promote resident PM2.5 reduction behavior, but their effect is different: command control policy is the best, the next is education guidance policy, and the last is economic incentive policy. The policies combination is also a useful intervening approach to resident PM2.5 reduction.The main contributions of this study are as follows: (1) A haze governance concept of urban resident PM2.5 reduction behavior was put forward based on resident perspective, and its connotation and extension were defined. In practice, the paper explored a new perspective of urban haze governance, and expanded the individual pro-environmental behavior areas theoretically. (2) The paper constructed a conceptual model for urban resident PM2.5 reduction behavior, and validated its applicability in the area of individual PM2.5 reduction research, then, explored its influencing factors and influencing mechanism based on individual psychology,behavioral control and external policy. (3) Two resident vehicular PM2.5 reduction behaviors, taking public transportation and purchasing new energy vehicles, were chosen to compare the difference of the influencing factors between the different behaviors. The direct and indirect impacts of perceived behavior control to different resident PM2.5 reduction behaviors were highly discussed. (4) The paper established urban resident PM2.5 reduction behavior simulation model based on multi-agents, and analyzed the moderating effects of three kinds of external policies on PM2.5 reduction behavior from a long-term dynamic perspective.