Document Type

Journal article

Source Publication

Journal of Comparative Economics

Publication Date

2-2014

Volume

42

Issue

1

First Page

118

Last Page

142

Publisher

Elsevier

Keywords

Pollution, Local protection, Law enforcement, FDI

Abstract

Using a large, unique, firm-level dataset from the Chinese manufacturing sector, we study important factors that are related to emission intensity for three pollutants in China – sulfur dioxide, wastewater, and soot. Our main findings are as follows: (1) compared to state-owned enterprises (SOEs), both foreign-owned firms and domestic public-listed firms exhibit less intensive pollutant emissions; (2) firms in regions with less local protection have lower pollution intensity; (3) better property rights protection is negatively correlated with pollutant discharge over and beyond the national standards; and (4) larger firms, firms in industries that export more, and firms with more educated employees pollute less. These results suggest that China should not target foreign firms more harshly in its effort to reduce industrial pollution. Better institutions in the form of more effective law enforcement and lower entry barriers across regional markets are also means of curbing China’s pressing environmental problems during its current stage of economic development.

DOI

10.1016/j.jce.2013.07.007

Print ISSN

01475967

E-ISSN

10957227

Publisher Statement

Copyright © 2013 Association for Comparative Economic Studies

Access to external full text or publisher's version may require subscription.

Additional Information

We are grateful to the editor Daniel Berkowitz, two anonymous reviewers, Gregory Chow, Jin Wang, and Yi Zhu, seminar participants at Lingnan University and participants at the Summer Workshop in Industrial Organization and Management Strategy (IOMS) 2010 Shanghai for their helpful comments and discussions. L. Jiang and P. Lin gratefully acknowledge Lingnan University for financial support of this project.

Full-text Version

Accepted Author Manuscript

Language

English

Recommended Citation

Jiang, L., Lin, C., & Lin, P. (2014). The determinants of pollution levels: Firm-level evidence from Chinese manufacturing. Journal of Comparative Economics, 42(1), 118-142. doi: 10.1016/j.jce.2013.07.007

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