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Business & Economics

THE ECOLOGICAL GOVERNANCE EFFECTS OF GOVERNMENT ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATORY POLICIES³
Jieqiong Wang, Xiao Zhang, Shichao Hu

ABSTRACT: To improve the carbon emission efficiency of enterprises and achieve carbon emission reduction, the government needs to implement regulation policies. Existing studies on the impact of government environmental regulation policies on enterprise carbon emission efficiency have not effectively subdivided and measured environmental regulation tools, and have not considered enough spatial characteristics of different types of environmental regulation policies. To clarify the impact of environmental regulation policies on carbon emission efficiency, that is, the ecological governance effect of government environmental regulation policies, based on the resource endowment theory, the "pollution refuge hypothesis”, and the "race-to-the-bottom” theory, the impact of government environmental regulation policies on carbon emission efficiency, and the spatial characteristics of carbon emission efficiency were empirically tested by applying a spatial econometric model using the data of China’s industrial enterprises from 2019 to 2022. The results show that there is obvious regional heterogeneity in carbon emission efficiency among provinces in China. Provinces with low carbon emission efficiency are mainly concentrated in central and western China, while provinces with high carbon emission efficiency are mainly concentrated in eastern China. There is a significant positive spatial spillover effect on carbon emission efficiency. Different types of environmental regulation policies have significant differences in the governance of carbon emission efficiency, and there are high-concentration and low-concentration characteristics. Different regions are suitable for different environmental regulation policies, the eastern part is more suitable for the market type, the central part is more suitable for the public participation type, and the western part is more suitable for the command type. Fiscal decentralisation can significantly improve the carbon emissions efficiency and the governance effect of government environmental regulation policies. The conclusions obtained from this study provide management insights for the government to achieve carbon emission reduction.

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JEL classification:  E60, H11, I18.

³Acknowledgments:  This study was supported by the Education Science Planning Project of Guangdong Province (No 2022GXJK587).