Shuai Shao

Whether the introduction of low-carbon policies has an unexpected deterioration effect on preexisting wage distortions in an imperfect labor market is paid little attention to. In this paper, based on the data from China’s 285 cities during 2005 to 2016, a heterogeneous stochastic frontier analysis model is used to measure the wage distortions. Fur...

In this study, the impact of the Communist Party secretary’s early-life experience on carbon governance is explored. The findings demonstrate that a secretary’s early-life environment protection experience can dramatically lower a city’s carbon intensity. This conclusion remains unchanged after considering the role of the mayor, reducing central go...

How much and what we eat and where it is produced can create huge differences in GHG emissions. On the basis of detailed household-expenditure data, we evaluate the unequal distribution of dietary emissions from 140 food products in 139 countries or areas and further model changes in emissions of global diet shifts. Within countries, consumer group...

Using the difference-in-differences method combined with the propensity score matching, this study identifies the causal relationship between high-speed rail (HSR) and energy productivity in China. Furthermore, we investigate the mechanism through which HSR affects energy productivity, as well as the heterogeneity of the impact across quantiles and...

Using the firm-level data of the Chinese industrial sector from 1998 to 2010, this study investigates the impact of the previous environmental protection experience of prefecture-level Communist Party secretaries on the COD regulation within the secretaries’ respective jurisdictions. The study finds that the secretaries’ previous environmental prot...

Energy consumption and carbon emissions induced by the production of manufacturing enterprises, especially the iron and steel enterprises (ISEs), are leading to severe global climate change. In this case, exploring the effectiveness of production-oriented carbon reduction projects is of great significance in promoting carbon neutrality and global c...

The pollution control effect of seasonal environmental regulation policies in developing countries still lacks empirical evidence. In 2017, China implemented its first Atmospheric Environmental Policy in Autumn and Winter (AEPAW) to coordinate efforts among cities in reducing air pollutant emissions. Taking the daily panel data of 174 cities in nor...

The environmental inequality theory reveals that the risk of environmental pollution exposure varies among regions and groups and that particular groups face a higher threat of environmental pollution. In recent years, studies on the environmental inequality issue in developed countries have been increasing, while related literature on developing c...

Although existing literature has explored the effect of the emission trading system (ETS) on economic growth and pollution emissions, little is known about the impact of the ETS on residents’ heath, especially infant health. Based on a “big sample” data set from 1773 county-level administrative regions in China from 2001 to 2012 and a differences-i...

With the increasing concerns of global economic recovery and climate change, the improvement of carbon emission efficiency has become extremely significant to get rid of economic and environmental dilemmas. Although natural resource development is usually carbon-intensive, little attention has been paid to the impact of natural resource dependence...

The rebound effect refers to the phenomenon that individuals tend to consume more energy in the face of energy efficiency improvement, which reduces the expected energy-saving effect. Previous empirical studies on the rebound effect of regions and sectors do not provide microscopic evidence. To fill this gap, we use China’s firm-level data to estim...

An institutional environment of fair competition helps to enhance the economic performance of enterprises, while its potential environmental effects are often ignored. In 2008, China implemented a unified corporate income tax merger policy that set the same tax rate for domestic and foreign-invested enterprises to make the domestic enterprises comp...

The heavy import dependence on oil and natural gas has threatened China's energy security. This paper discusses how to reduce the input preference for import-dependent energy (i.e., oil and natural gas) in China's manufacturing sector by selecting appropriate technology. Firstly, we estimate the biased level of import-dependent energy through a het...

The differential power pricing (DPP) policy is implemented as an important measure to curb the unrestrained development of high-energy-consuming industries, optimize industrial structure, and promote the upgrading of industrial technology. However, it is unclear how the DPP policy affects the productivity of regulated firms. Using the difference-in...

This paper develops a multi-sector and multi-factor structural gravity model that allows an analytical and quantitative decomposition of the emission and output changes into composition and technique effects. We find that the negative production shock of China’s containment policy propagates globally via supply chains, with the carbon-intensive sec...

China’s recent coal capacity cut policies are expected to promote an energy supply-side revolution. However, their real impacts are still uncertain, especially for coal resource-based regions. Based on a dynamic computable general equilibrium (DCGE) model, this is the first study to investigate the effects of output-controlled and investment-contro...

The house property tax pilot policy (HPTPP) introduced in 2011 has resulted in the redistribution of R&D resources. However, few studies have focused on the impacts of this policy. In this paper, we use the heterogeneous stochastic frontier analysis method to measure the R&D total factor productivity (TFP) growth rate of Chinese universities. Then,...

With the increasing concerns of global climate change, clean energy development is regarded as one of the most important measures to mitigate CO2 emissions. However, existing studies pay little attention to the spatial spillover effect of clean energy development on CO2 emissions. Using a provincial-level panel data set during 1997–2017 and a spati...

Household use of solid fuels is a major source of indoor air pollution and poses health risks to users. Using Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) data, this paper employs a Probit model to investigate the health effects of household cooking fuel choices. We also use the propensity score matching method to control for the self-selection problem of...

To promote regional economic development, China introduced regional development plans (RDPs) in 2009. This is the first study to investigate the net effect of the RDPs on China's regional economic growth by employing the multi-stage difference-in-differences (DID) strategy and a city-level panel data set during the 2004–2015 period. We reduce the s...

In China, although the number of registered electric vehicles (EVs) has recently risen, the market share of EVs is not comparable to that of conventional internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs). To identify the determinants of EV acceptance, this study performs a questionnaire survey in Shanghai, the economic center of China and one of the earl...

Using a relational two-stage network data envelopment analysis (DEA) model considering undesirable outputs, this paper evaluates both the process and system performances of industrial environmental governance in China’s 30 provincial-level regions during 1998–2015. Furthermore, this is the first study to apply the spatial econometric models with a...

There is significant interest among policymakers and academics about whether or not green credit, which is a market-oriented environmental policy tool, has achieved its intended effect in improving the environment in China. This paper addresses this question from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. Using panel data from 30 provincial admin...

In this paper, we employ the propensity score matching (PSM) strategy and difference-in-differences (DID) strategy to investigate the changes in the research strength of non-211-Project universities after being co-managed by local governments and the Ministry of Education. The results show that the number of publications of non-211-Project universi...

In the context of increasingly serious rural environmental pollution in China, this paper specifically examines the impact of China's rural labor transfer (RLT) on rural environmental pollution. Based on the micro data of rural communities from the Chinese Family Database and the China Community Governance Survey, we investigate the impacts of RLT...

Air pollution currently poses a serious threat to human health and sustainable development in China. In an attempt to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOX) emissions which are the major anthropogenic contributors to air pollution, China initiated an electricity price subsidy (EPS) policy in November 2011 for incentivizing coal-fired power plants to install...

For decades, resource-based cities in China have significantly contributed to China's socio-economic development. The heavy resource dependence of resource-based cities inevitably leads to a series of environmental problems. Mitigating environmental impacts in an unthinking manner might be disruptive for economic development. Improving eco-efficien...

Using a panel data set of 248 Chinese cities at the prefecture level and above from 2004 to 2013, this study employs the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method based on a non-angular and non-radial directional distance function (DDF) combined with the overall technology, to measure the haze-governance performance. Furthermore, we construct a compos...

Population aging has become a salient demographic phenomenon in China, thus causing social and economic concerns. However, little is known about the impact of population aging on the environment. The available literature mainly emphasizes decreases in energy consumption or carbon emissions caused by population aging, conveying limited information a...

As the most important emerging transportation technology, high-speed rail (HSR) can reshape regional economic development patterns and exert an important effect on the ecological environment. Using a panel data set of 275 Chinese cities at the prefecture level and above from 2003 to 2014, this study is the first to adopt a continuous spatial differ...

Green innovation has been positioned as an effective way to balance economic development and environmental governance. However, the impact of green innovation (i.e., innovation relating to the environmentally sound technologies (ESTs)) on carbon emission performance in a large developing country, such as China, has been paid little attention. This...

Recent increases in the frequency and scale of wildfires worldwide have raised concerns about the influence of climate change and associated socioeconomic costs. In the western United States, the hazard of wildfire has been increasing for decades. Here, we use a combination of physical, epidemiological and economic models to estimate the economic i...

In developing countries, ecological transfer payments (ETPs) are a preferred method of solving the dilemma of environmental governance. However, the associated policy effects have not yet been effectively evaluated. We use unique ETPs' data provided by the Ministry of Finance of China in a dynamic spatial panel data model. Our study finds that ETPs...

The electric power industry is the main source of carbon emissions in China. The structural transformation of electric power supply plays a key role in the realization of low-carbon development in China. However, the low-carbon transformation of the electric power structure has to consider the differences in resource endowment and technical conditi...

In this paper, we construct a theoretical model considering that wage distortion is exogenous and endogenous, respectively, to explore the effect of wage distortion on green technological progress. Furthermore, using the panel data of China's industrial sector, we investigate the direct influence and mediating effect of wage distortion on green tec...

The change in the level of operating performance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) under the constraint of climate policies is directly related to the success or failure of subsequent low-carbon development. In this study, taking the Low-carbon Pilot Program introduced in 2010 by the central government as an exogenous natural experiment, we investi...

The energy rebound effect is a potential threat to energy-saving targets based on energy efficiency improvements. This paper employs a stochastic energy demand frontier model to analyze the energy demand and rebound effect in China's urban residential sector. Using a panel data set of 30 Chinese provincial-level regions over the period 2001-2014, f...

The profound impacts of oil price jumps have caught the attention of scholars. Because the 2008 global financial crisis has seemingly already passed, the existence of oil price jumps is in doubt. In this paper, we provide evidence that the threat of dynamic jumps still exists in the global oil market in the post-crisis period, while the stocks and...

Abstract As energy saving and emission reduction become a global action, the disparity in energy intensity between different regions is a new rising problem that stems a country's or region's energy‐saving potential. Here we collect China's provincial panel data (1995–2017) of primary and final energy consumption to evaluate China's unequal and pol...

Due to the serious increase of environmental pollution in China, environmental regulations have become significantly stringent. Such regulations are playing an increasingly important role in the development of small enterprises (SEs) in China, especially in SEs' market entry. However, existing studies pay little attention to this issue. This paper...

China has set a series of periodical CO2 emission reduction targets, with a goal of peaking CO2 emission by 2030. Due to China’s large size and imbalanced development, the achievement of such targets depends on the performances of China’s provinces. Under such a circumstance, this study aims to identify the driving forces and predict the trajectori...

Considering the enlarging inter-provincial disparities in China as regards carbon emissions and carbon intensity (carbon emissions per unit gross domestic product), this paper is the first study to investigate the inter-provincial carbon imbalance by constructing and employing the Kaya-Zenga index. We use China's panel data of provincial-level carb...

Based on the panel data of 18 prefecture-level and above cities in the Yangtze River Delta region of China during the period of 2007-2016, this paper uses a relative price approach to calculate the degree of market integration (segmentation), and further adopts the dynamic spatial panel Durbin model and the generalized spatial two-stage least squar...

Environmental regulation has been confirmed to have an important impact on enterprise productivity, which is regarded as a crucial factor of enterprise duration. However, existing studies have paid little attention to how environmental regulation affects enterprise duration. Using firm‐level data from the Chinese Industrial Enterprises Database (20...

China has pledged to peak its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and lower its CO2 intensity by 60–65% from the 2005 level by 2030. Understanding the role of energy structural adjustment in achieving such targets is critical along with China’s rapid urbanization process. This study aims to uncover the drivers of China’s non-fossil energy development du...

With the rapid development of county-level economy promoted by continuous administrative decentralization reform in China, the shortage of county-level credit resources has become an increasingly serious problem. Based on the quasi-experiment of China's “Enlarging Authority and Strengthening Counties” (EASC) reform, this paper investigates the real...

Although China's technological strength has improved, the country's innovation inefficiency caused by research & development (R&D) resource misallocation should be addressed. Using the heterogeneous stochastic frontier approach and the panel data of China's 28 manufacturing sectors from 2001 to 2015, this paper estimates innovative technical effici...

It is crucial to decouple economic growth from environmental pollution in China. This study aims to evaluate China's decoupling level between PM2.5 emissions and economic growth from a regional investment perspective. Using the panel data of 30 Chinese provinces for the period of 1998-2016, this study combines decomposition analysis with decoupling...

Environmental regulation may lead to undesired economic consequences. China has tightened its environmental policies to deal with severe environmental pollution in recent years, but existing studies pay little attention to the economic consequences of China's environmental policies. Using the panel data of 211 prefecture‐level and above cities in C...

The impact of environmental regulation on enterprise innovation is closely related to the competitiveness of the enterprise and sustainable development of the regional economy, but existing research does not provide a consistent view. This paper summarizes the impacts of environmental regulation on enterprise innovation from the perspectives of tec...

China's rapid industrialization has induced water and energy shortage issue. Since water and energy resources are inextricably connected, the synergetic conservation of these two resources is conducive to China's sustainable development. In this paper, using a heterogeneous stochastic frontier model, we estimate the output and substitution elastici...

As the largest CO2 emitter in the world, China plays a crucial role in global CO2 emission reduction. Meanwhile, as the largest developing country, China gives top priority to economic development, especially balanced regional development. In order to narrow regional development inequality, China has formulated some economic zone plannings to weake...

This paper employs the slack-based measure method and an extended Luenberger productivity indicator to estimate and decompose the atmospheric environmental performance under the constraints of energy and atmospheric pollutant emissions [i.e., the growth of the atmospheric environment total factor productivity (AETFP)] of the “three regions and ten...

The identification of “industrial soot” or “vehicle exhaust” pollution facilitates developing proper measures for the mitigation of regional air pollution. In order to identify the pollution types at a regional level, this paper applies the Luenberger productivity indicator to decompose air pollutant emissions performance. Furthermore, we simultane...

Existing studies pay little attention to when or under which conditions foreign direct investment (FDI) can spill energy-saving technologies. From a perspective of energy-biased technical change and using a two-layer nested constant elasticity of substitution (CES) production function, this paper investigates the energy-saving spillover effect of F...

Income inequality is undoubtedly a potential economic and social risk for any country in the world. For China, the improvement in agricultural production capacity and the steady progress of urbanization are fundamental guarantees to mitigate unbalanced urban-rural development and alleviate urban-rural conflict. However, previous studies have paid l...

The energy rebound effect is regarded as an obstacle of achieving the expected target of energy-saving policies, especially under a rapid urbanization background in developing counties, such as China. This has become a substantial drag of sustainable development in some cities. Shanghai is the economic center of China, and it is also a typical ener...

As part of the country's efforts to achieve green development, China implemented a mandatory energy intensity reduction target in its 11th "Five-Year Plan (FYP)" in 2006, and then began to roll out a series of relevant measures. However, existing studies have paid little attention to the actual effects of China's energy intensity constraint policy...

Energy intensity has been a major assessment indicator in the design of energy saving policies, and it is one of the eight binding indicators of the target responsibility system for officials' performance evaluation in the 11th Five-Year Plan in China. However, the accuracy of measurement of energy intensity depends to a large extent on the reliabi...

As the centre of human activity and being under the threat of climate change, cities are considered to be major components in the implementation of climate change mitigation and CO2 emission reduction strategies. Inventories of cities’ emissions serve as the foundation for the analysis of emissions characteristics and policymaking. China is the wor...

Natural resource endowment has a significant influence on manufacturing structure which in turn influences CO2 emissions. This paper investigates the effect of the rationalization and upgrading of manufacturing structure on carbon dioxide emissions in China, based on the perspective of natural resource dependence. The results of the STIRPAT model o...

As part of the Paris Agreement, China pledged to peak its CO2 emissions by 2030. In retrospect, the commitment may have been fulfilled as it was being made—China’s emissions peaked in 2013 at a level of 9.53 gigatons of CO2, and have declined in each year from 2014 to 2016. However, the prospect of maintaining the continuance of these reductions de...

As the largest carbon emitter and developing country in the world, China's rapid urbanization in recent decades plays a significant role in carbon emissions. However, there is still no consensus on whether urbanization process and carbon emission abatement in China can achieve a harmonious state. Based on the panel data of China's 30 provincial-lev...

We develop an energy-environment-economy dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with five sectors, including households, energy, government, final goods, and the environment. The model is used to assess the response of China's carbon emissions to environmental tax shocks. The core of the model establishes an exponential function of env...

The majority of existing studies argue that rich people and the residents in high-income countries and regions have stronger willingness to pay (WTP) for environmental protection. Does such a rule hold true for China at the present stage? Previous studies pay little attention to this issue due to the lack of related data. Merging the micro data fro...

The improvement in energy consumption structure is of great significance to the green transformation of economic development. In this paper, to explore the reasonable improvement pathway of energy consumption structure in China's industrial sector, we treat fossil energy and non-fossil energy as two different factors into the production function, a...

At present, companies are increasingly pressed to respond to ecological development issues. Little research, however, links green supply chain (GSC) to companies' business performance. This paper uses top brands' micro-data and the Corporate Information Transparency Index (CITI) developed by environmental non-governmental organizations to explore t...

High speed rail (HSR) services shorten space-time distances between cities and induce the reallocation of production resources between regions (cities). Based on the data of 25 cities in China's Yangtze River Delta region during 1995–2014, this paper uses the (continuous) difference-in-differences model to investigate the influence of HSR on urban...

Whether or not carbon regulation policies can achieve the “double dividend” of carbon reduction and economic growth is vital for realizing the sustainable development of a certain country. This paper investigates the effects of a carbon intensity constraint policy (CICP) that the Chinese government put forward in 2009 on the green production perfor...

China's three urban agglomerations, namely, "Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei", "Yangtze River Delta", and "Pearl River Delta", are the most developed regions in China. These agglomerations are also expected to play a leading role in China's low-carbon development. Energy-saving and carbon-free technological changes play key roles in the low-carbon developmen...

Keywords: Elasticity of the potential of emission reduction to energy saving Definition Measurement Data envelopment analysis China a b s t r a c t Based on energy and CO 2 emission efficiencies, this paper proposes a definition of the elasticity of the potential of emission reduction to energy saving (E peres), and measures the elasticity in China...