The Research On The Effect Of Environmental Regulation To New Manufacturers’ Location Choices In Six Provinces Of Central China

Since the 1990 s,with the phenomenon of enterprise migration from the east to the central and western regions of China has become increasingly frequent,the industrial spatial pattern has been optimized constantly.In order to maximize profits,the polluting enterprises in the eastern region began to transfer to the central and western areas with the comparative advantage of low-cost.Local governments in central China compete with each other for economic resources and are willing to reduce the intensity of environmental regulations to attract enterprises transferred from developed regions in the hope of the shortterm rapid economic growth.As a result,environmental problems in the central and western regions have become increasingly serious.In order to avoid the central and western regions becoming a “Pollution Haven”,China has begun to elevate environmental governance to the national strategic level and gradually improve the environmental protection system.Faced with the increasingly complex phenomenon of enterprise migration,the research of the relationship between the enterprise migration locational choiceand environmental regulation is still the hot spot in the field of regional economics and new economic geography.Discussing the migration of enterprises,especially the relationship between the the enterprise migration locational choice in central China and environmental regulation,is helpful to understand the complex phenomenon of enterprise migration in east and central China.It has important theoretical and practical significance for guiding the migration of enterprises in the east and central regions and comprehensively propelling the ecological and environmental protection work.Based on the previous researches,this paper uses the spatial economics theory for reference.We try to integrate environmental cost into Footloose-Entrepreneur Model and construct enterprise migration model with environmental constraint,and roughly explains the mechanism of environmental regulation.Based on the theoretical model,this paper describes the spatial differentiation of enterprise migration from a micro perspective by spatial analysis,and using the method of econometric analysis,attempts to analyze the role of environmental regulation on different types of manufacturing enterprises in the process of site selection and decision making in the central China.The research shows that:(1)By analyzing the mechanism of environmental regulation on the location of enterprises,it can be found that government’s strict environmental regulation has a strongly crowding-out effect on manufacturing enterprises.With the continuous improvement of environmental regulation intensity,the production cost of enterprises is also increasing.When the production cost is greater than the migration cost of enterprises,the long-term equilibrium relationship between regions is broken,forcing companies to relocate to areas with smaller environmental regulations.(2)Manufacturing enterprises are increasingly affected by environmental regulations.In the early stage of 2008,environmental protection was weak,and the impact of environmental regulations on new enterprises in central China was also relatively weak.Since 2008,China has intensified its efforts in environmental protection,tightened environmental supervision,and strengthened the negative impact of environmental regulations on the entry of manufacturing enterprises.Entrepreneurs should consider the impact of environmental costs more in their migration decisions.(3)state-owned enterprises are not sensitive to the impact of environmental regulation,while foreign-capital enterprise and non-state-owned enterprises have a greater impact.The intensity of environmental regulation and the institutional factors of local government have a significant negative effect on the establishment of non-state-owned enterprises in the city.However,the establishment of state-owned enterprises is mostly under the political interference,which is often the result of local government’s investment impulse and mutual competition,has the obvious regional protection characteristic.(4)Pollution-intensive enterprises tend to locate in areas with smaller environmental regulations.For the central China with relatively backward economic development,the entry of manufacturing enterprises has brought about economic growth,employment increase and resident income increase.These factors further promote the entry of polluting enterprises and eventually becoming a “Pollution Haven”.(5)From the empirical results of the overall view,environmental regulation is the primary factor to inhibit the entry of enterprises.The ever-increasing environmental regulations have raised the barriers to entry of enterprises,and the intervention of regional governments has an impact on the entry of enterprises to some extent.Although this paper has achieved some results in terms of the impact of environmental regulation on enterprise location selection,there are still some obvious deficiencies,especially in the construction of theoretical model,data and index selection,which need to be improved.I look forward to further study in the future.