A Research On The Pollution Reduction Effect Of Target Responsibility System Of Environmental Protection

Pollution reduction is the key to optimize economic structure,change the mode of development and improve people’s well-being.It is also a powerful tool to improve environmental quality and solve environmental problems.The Communist Party of China Central Committee has long attached great importance to ecological environment protection and pollution control,and strictly implement the environmental protection responsibility of Party Committees and governments at all levels.Specifically,the Target Responsibility System of Environmental Protection(TRSEP)was formed through setting,decomposing and assessing top-down environmental protection goals.In general,TRSEP and pollution reduction are the institution guarantee and core goal of ecological environment protection,respectively.Systematic research on the pollution reduction effect of TRSEP is of great significance for winning the battle against pollution and realizing high-quality development.Based on the above institutional background,this dissertation systematically reviews the theoretical basis and practice of TRSEP,and comprehensively evaluates the pollution reduction effect of TRSEP by using regional-level and firm-level data.The main contents and conclusions are as follows.Firstly,this dissertation sorts out the development history of TRSEP and the characteristic facts of pollutant emission in China,then preliminarily analyzes the relationship between them.Specifically,this dissertation systematically reviews the development process and application of TRSEP in China.Also,the characteristic facts of major pollutant discharge are described and analyzed from the national and regional levels.Based on the above analysis,this dissertation analyzes the relationship between institutional constraint intensity of TRSEP and pollutant emissions.The results indicate that there is a negative linear relationship between the intensity of TRSEP and pollutant emissions for the restrictive pollutants,such as sulfur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand.Therefore,the relationship is not obvious for the non-restrictive pollutants,such as industrial wastewater and industrial waste gas.Secondly,this dissertation systematic analyzes the theoretical basis of TRSEP and the theoretical mechanism to realize pollution reduction.Based on the management by objectives theory,principal-agent theory and government hierarchy theory,this dissertation clarifies the operation logic and power responsibility relationship of TRSEP.Also,combined with the multi-level vertical government structure and the institutional characteristics of hierarchical management,this dissertation distinguishes and defines the two institutional models of “levelby-level management” and “cross-level management”.Compared with the level-by-level management model,the TRSEP under the cross-level management model involves fewer government levels,and the process of goal decomposition,transmission and assessment is more direct,contributing to alleviate the dissipation of environmental governance efficiency.Therefore,its environmental governance efficiency is stronger.The results of theoretical analysis show implementing the TRSEP may bring environmental protection target pressure to local governments,and influence their pollution control behavior.Specifically,the TRSEP can promote pollution reduction by strengthening economic incentives and regulatory pressure.The implementation of TRSEP may not only help to realize pollution reduction,but also reduce polluting industries’ scale,force economic structural green transformation and promote green economic growth.Thirdly,this dissertation empirically examines the pollution reduction effect of TRSEP under the level-by-level management mode.Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2007 to 2017,this dissertation uses the panel data model to test the pollution reduction effect of TRSEP under the level-by-level management mode.The empirical evidence shows that the implementation of TRSEP has significantly promotes the reduction of restrictive pollutants emissions by increasing economic incentives and regulatory pressure.According to heterogeneity analysis results,under the level-by-level management mode,implementing the TRSEP has a more significant pollution reduction effect for eastern regions and the pilot areas for carbon emissions trading.In addition,the pollution reduction effect of TRSEP under the level-by-level management mode is not significant for the non-restrictive pollutants.From the perspective of green development,The TRSEP in the level-by-level management mode can reduce the proportion of polluting industries in the regional economic structure,which is conducive to improving green economic efficiency.Fourthly,this dissertation empirically examines the pollution reduction effect of TRSEP under the cross-level management mode.Based on the “double thirty” energy conservation and pollution reduction demonstration project and the data of Hebei Province,this dissertation utilizes difference-in-differences model to evaluate the pollution reduction effect of TRSEP unnder the cross-level management mode.The results indicate that the implementation of TRSEP with the cross-level management mode can significantly promote the reduction of restrictive pollutants emissions,such as sulfur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand.Specifically,TRSEP can promote the pollutants’ emission reduction by increasing environmental protection expenditure to form economic incentives,and strengthening environmental administrative punishment to form regulatory pressure.In addition,the heterogeneity analysis shows that the pollution reduction effects of TRSEP under the crosslevel management mode are more significant for the counties in non-administrative border.Also,this policy can significantly reduce the discharge for the non-restrictive pollution indicators such as industrial wastewater and industrial exhaust gas.Further analysis shows that the TRSEP in cross-level management mode promotes regional green economic efficiency and realizes green economic development.Finally,the evidence at the firm level shows that the TRSEP under cross-level management mode encourages the corporate pollution reduction,which is mainly promoted through the mechanism of technology and scale effects.Based on economics and public management theories,this dissertation constructs a theoretical framework for analyzing the TRSEP.Then combining with China’s multi-level administrative governance system,this dissertation distinguishes and defines the two modes of “level-by-level management” and “cross-level management”,which expands the boundary of theoretical research about TRSEP.Furthermore,based on the application of the TRSEP in China,this dissertation comprehensively evaluates the effects and mechanisms of TRSEP to promote pollution reduction,and tests the positive effect on green economic development.The conclusions not only provide empirical evidence for the study of TRSEP and pollution reduction,but also provide policy enlightenment for the improvement and innovation of TRSEP,so as to realize pollution control and green transformation.