Consequences Of Environmental Regulation On Environment And Health Disparities

After the 11 th Five-Year Plan,the Chinese government has shown its determination to combat environmental pollution with an "iron fist" and environment quality has been significantly improved.However,such kind of pollution regulation may be accompanied by problems such as pollution transfer,and the gap between different groups may be further widened due to the existence of unequal opportunities and the urban-rural gap.Therefore,this dissertation will focus on the impact of environmental regulation on environmental inequality and health inequality.We use panel data of more than 127,000 enterprises in 334 cities during2001-2010 to verify the impact of the 11 th Five-Year Plan policy on pollution exposure of different groups and its mechanism of action through a DID model,and further analyzes the intensity of pollution emissions.Three robustness tests were used:parallel trend test,substitution indicator,and elimination of population migration factor.Based on this,we used individual-level health data from CHNS to explore the effect of inequitable pollution exposure on the health of disadvantaged groups who do not use tap water through DDD model,using whether they use tap water as the third variable,and conducted a series of robustness tests.The study found that the 11 th Five-Year Plan policy led to an increase in COD emissions from firms in areas with a high proportion of disadvantaged people relative to those in areas with a low proportion of disadvantaged people,and a significant increase in the number of water polluters and new entrants in areas with a high proportion of disadvantaged people.In addition,further analysis shows that firms in areas with a high share of disadvantaged groups are less-intensity in their emissions,indicating that despite the more permissive environment,these firms still need to reduce production to meet local environmental regulations and emission reduction targets.There are also some differences in the health status of different groups.The low educated people who do not use tap water have a relatively increased risk of water pollution related diseases.The dissertation concludes with policy recommendations based on the findings: promoting educational equity,eliminating institutional discrimination against vulnerable groups,and integrating public health concepts into environmental protection policies.The contribution of this dissertation is to highlight that government policies may be a source of environmental inequality by directing firms to locate plants where disadvantaged groups are concentrated,and to provide a further perspective on the environmental-health mechanism that substantiates the consequences of health inequality.