Research On Effects Of Environmental Regulations On China’s Environmental Pollution

Environmental pollution is an inevitable problem faced by any country in the process of industrialization.In the past 40 years of reform and opening-up,China’s economy has achieved tremendous achievements;environmental pollution and ecological damage have intensified.Environmental issues have become an important factor affecting sustainable economic development,public health and social stability.In fact,facing the rapidly deteriorating environment and the public’s environmental protection demands,the environmental strategy has shifted from “economic development priority” and “coordination of environmental protection and economic development” to “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” to accelerate the construction of ecological civilization.A series of environmental laws and regulations have been formulated and promulgated,the types of environmental regulation tools have been diversified,and the intensity of environmental regulation has also increased.In the process of environmental governance,how the formal environmental regulations affect the industrial pollution emissions and the ecological environment? Can the formal environmental regulations affect industrial pollution emissions through mediating effects? Are these transmission paths exist regional heterogeneities? How the informal environmental regulations affect the industrial pollution emissions.The research on the above issues can improve the pollution reduction effects of environmental regulations,and promote green development and ecological civilization.On the basis of theoretical research and empirical research on environmental pollution and environmental regulation,this dissertation analyzes and summarizes the historical evolution of China’s environmental regulation system and the implementation effect of environmental regulation tools,then measures the provincial environmental regulation intensity comprehensive index and environmental pollution index.Furthormore,the dissertation gives the theoretical explanations on “Green Paradox Effect” and “Pollution Reduction Effect” that may occur in environmental regulation,and researches on the impact mechanism of emissions from the view of technological innovation,industrial structure and foreign direct investment(FDI).Then introduces the informal environmental regulation derived from social pressure,analyzes the impact of informal environmental regulation on pollution discharge and the indirect impact through formal environmental regulation.In addition,based on the provincial panel data from 2006 to 2017,this dissertation empirically analyzes the environmental regulation on the impact mechanism and paths of the pollution governance with the mediating effect method,the system generalized moment estimation method and the fixed effect estimation method.Finally,the environmental policy recommendations for pollution reduction based on the research conclusions and the experience of environmental governance in developed countries.The main conclusions of this study are as follows: Firstly,the intensity of both command-controll environmental regulation and market-based environmental regulation shows ascending tendency in fluctuations;public demand for environmental protection and rational demands for environmental protection shows descending tendency in fluctuations and ascending tendency in recent years respectively;and industrial pollution shows descending trendency in fluctuations.Secondly,theoretical analysis shows that the impact of formal environmental regulation on reducing emissions and pollution is the result of the game between the “green paradox” effect and the “reduce emissions and pollution” effect.The impact mechanism of the formal environmental and emissions is discussed based on three intermediate variables such as technological innovation,industrial structure and foreign direct investment.As the effective supplement to formal environmental regulations,the informal environmental regulation can not only affect the emissions of industrial enterprises directly,but also affect the industrial pollution through the formal environmental regulations indirectly.Thirdly,the direct effect of the command-control regulation on reducing emissions and pollution is obvious.Focusing on each specific intermediary path,the command-control regulation can reduce pollution effectively through technological innovation,while the industrial structure and FDI inflow have a suppressing effect on command-control regulation and emissions,and forming negative mechanism.The effect of the market-based regulation on reducing emissions and pollution is significant as well.In terms of the impact mechanism,technological innovation has a positive transimission function on market-based environmental regulation and the reducing emissions and pollution,while foreign investment and industrial structure have a negative and invalid effect inspectively.Meanwhile there exists regional heterogeneities among different regions.Fourthly,public demand for environmental protection has a significant effect on reducing emissions and pollution,and it can affect the emissions of industrial enterprises through formal environmental regulations to a certain extent.Meanwhile,the rational demand for environmental protection hans no significant on reducing emissions and pollution,there is a trade-off relationship between rational demand for environmental protection and formal environmental regulation.Compared with the existing literature,the main contributions of this paper are as follows:Firstly,the mechanism of environmental regulation on environmental pollution was clarified in theory,and the comprehensive theoretical analysis framework covers the "formal environmental regulation-industrial emissions","formal environmental regulation-mediating variables(technical innovation/industrial structure/foreign direct investment)-industrial emissions” and “informal environmental regulation-industrial emissions”,which extends the research perspectives of environmental regulation on reducing emissions and pollution.Secondly,on the basis of constructing comprehensive indicators to measure the intensity of command-control environmental regulation and market-based environmental regulation,this dissertation empirically analyzes the specific transmission paths of different types of formal environmental regulations to industrial emissions from the perspective of technological innovation,industrial structure and foreign direct investment using the mediating effect model,which providing guidance for the improving orientation and perfection of environmental regulation.Thirdly,after introducing the informal environmental regulations into the research framework,this dissertation empirically analyzes the direct effects and indirect effects of public demand for environmental regulation and rational demands for environmental regulation on reducing emissions,which providing reference and guidance for the participation of informal regulation.