IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i22p8661-d448947.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fiscal Decentralization and Local Environmental Pollution in China

Author

Listed:
  • Shufen Guo

    (Cooperative Innovation Center for Transition of Resource-Based Economies, Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, Taiyuan 030006, China
    School of Business Administration, Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, Taiyuan 030006, China)

  • Ludi Wen

    (School of Business Administration, Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, Taiyuan 030006, China)

  • Yanrui Wu

    (Department of Economics, University of Western Australia, Nedlands 6907, Australia)

  • Xiaohang Yue

    (Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI 53201-0413, USA)

  • Guilian Fan

    (Cooperative Innovation Center for Transition of Resource-Based Economies, Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, Taiyuan 030006, China
    School of Business Administration, Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, Taiyuan 030006, China)

Abstract

Fiscal decentralization is one of the tools for the central government to engage local governments in environment management. However, its effects are inconclusive. This paper aims to examine the impact of fiscal decentralization on environmental pollution and the role of government environmental preference in China’s provinces. The results show that fiscal revenue decentralization exacerbates local environmental pollution more seriously than expenditure decentralization. This negative environmental effect of fiscal decentralization could be moderated by government environmental preference. Based on our findings, it is recommended that China’s local governments should improve environmental preference so that fiscal decentralization can create a win–win situation for the economy and environment. Furthermore, the different effects of fiscal revenue and expenditure decentralization create a necessity for differentiated management of fiscal decentralization by the central and local governments.

Suggested Citation

  • Shufen Guo & Ludi Wen & Yanrui Wu & Xiaohang Yue & Guilian Fan, 2020. "Fiscal Decentralization and Local Environmental Pollution in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-17, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:22:p:8661-:d:448947
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/22/8661/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/22/8661/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schreifels, Jeremy J. & Fu, Yale & Wilson, Elizabeth J., 2012. "Sulfur dioxide control in China: policy evolution during the 10th and 11th Five-year Plans and lessons for the future," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 779-789.
    2. Wildasin, David E., 1989. "Interjurisdictional capital mobility: Fiscal externality and a corrective subsidy," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 193-212, March.
    3. Mihaela Onofrei & Anca-Florentina Gavriluţă (Vatamanu) & Ionel Bostan & Bogdan Florin Filip & Claudia Laurența Popescu & Gabriela Jitaru, 2020. "Impacts of the Allocation of Governmental Resources for Improving the Environment. An Empirical Analysis on Developing European Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-18, April.
    4. Grossman, G.M & Krueger, A.B., 1991. "Environmental Impacts of a North American Free Trade Agreement," Papers 158, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Public and International Affairs.
    5. Hilary Sigman, 2014. "Decentralization and Environmental Quality: An International Analysis of Water Pollution Levels and Variation," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 90(1), pages 114-130.
    6. Wu, Libo & Kaneko, Shinji & Matsuoka, Shunji, 2005. "Driving forces behind the stagnancy of China's energy-related CO2 emissions from 1996 to 1999: the relative importance of structural change, intensity change and scale change," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 319-335, February.
    7. Olivier Blanchard & Andrei Shleifer, 2001. "Federalism With and Without Political Centralization: China Versus Russia," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 48(4), pages 1-8.
    8. Mohammad Reza Farzanegan & Tim Mennel, 2012. "Fiscal decentralization and Pollution: Institutions Matter," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201222, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
    9. Du, Julan & Fang, Hongsheng & Jin, Xiangrong, 2014. "The “growth-first strategy” and the imbalance between consumption and investment in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 441-458.
    10. Yingyi Qian & Barry R. Weingast, 1997. "Federalism as a Commitment to Reserving Market Incentives," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 83-92, Fall.
    11. Greaney, Theresa M. & Li, Yao & Tu, Dongmei, 2017. "Pollution control and foreign firms’ exit behavior in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 148-159.
    12. Jie Zhang & Yinxiao Qu & Yun Zhang & Xiuzhen Li & Xiao Miao, 2019. "Effects of FDI on the Efficiency of Government Expenditure on Environmental Protection Under Fiscal Decentralization: A Spatial Econometric Analysis for China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-19, July.
    13. Jianing Zang & Liangliang Liu, 2020. "Fiscal decentralization, government environmental preference, and regional environmental governance efficiency: evidence from China," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 65(2), pages 439-457, October.
    14. Kunce, Mitch & Shogren, Jason F., 2002. "On Environmental Federalism and Direct Emission Control," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 238-245, March.
    15. Antonis Adam & Manthos Delis & Pantelis Kammas, 2014. "Fiscal decentralization and public sector efficiency: evidence from OECD countries," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 17-49, February.
    16. He, Jie & Wang, Hua, 2012. "Economic structure, development policy and environmental quality: An empirical analysis of environmental Kuznets curves with Chinese municipal data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 49-59.
    17. Charles M. Tiebout, 1956. "A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(5), pages 416-416.
    18. He, Qichun, 2015. "Fiscal decentralization and environmental pollution: Evidence from Chinese panel data," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 86-100.
    19. Liangliang Liu & Donghong Ding & Jun He, 2019. "The welfare effects of fiscal decentralization: a simple model and evidence from China," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 417-434, January.
    20. Shen, Junyi, 2006. "A simultaneous estimation of Environmental Kuznets Curve: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 383-394.
    21. Shih, Victor & Adolph, Christopher & Liu, Mingxing, 2012. "Getting Ahead in the Communist Party: Explaining the Advancement of Central Committee Members in China," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 106(1), pages 166-187, February.
    22. Besley, Timothy & Coate, Stephen, 2003. "Centralized versus decentralized provision of local public goods: a political economy approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(12), pages 2611-2637, December.
    23. John A. List & Shelby Gerking, 2000. "Regulatory Federalism and Environmental Protection in the United States," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 453-471, August.
    24. Tianren Yang & Minghai Ye & Pei Pei & Yongjiang Shi & Haozhi Pan, 2019. "City Branding Evaluation as a Tool for Sustainable Urban Growth: A Framework and Lessons from the Yangtze River Delta Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-11, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Xiuli & Lai, Chenghao & Li, Hengkai & Zhang, Zheyuan, 2023. "A tripartite game analysis of public participation in environmental regulation of ionic rare earth mining areas," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    2. Zhang, Cuifang & Xiang, Xiandeng, 2023. "Fiscal decentralization, environmental policy stringency, and resource sustainability: Panacea or Pandora's box in high resource consuming countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    3. Zhijun Gu & Chaowei Tian & Zeyuan Zheng & Shujian Zhang, 2022. "Favorable Fiscal Self-Sufficiency Enables Local Governments to Better Improve the Environmental Governance—Evidence from China’s Lower-Pollution Areas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Di Wang & Zhiyuan Zhang & Ruyi Shi, 2022. "Fiscal Decentralization, Green Technology Innovation, and Regional Air Pollution in China: An Investigation from the Perspective of Intergovernmental Competition," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-18, July.
    5. Sean Dougherty & Andoni Montes Nebreda, 2022. "Going global, locally? Decentralized environmental expenditure and air quality," Public Sector Economics, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 46(4), pages 489-503.
    6. Youshuai Sun & Demi Zhu & Zhenyu Zhang & Na Yan, 2022. "Does Fiscal Stress Improve the Environmental Efficiency? Perspective Based on the Urban Horizontal Fiscal Imbalance," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-23, May.
    7. Xu Zhang & Tianchu Feng & Chengjun Wang & Chaozhu Li, 2023. "Local Fiscal Pressure and Public Health: Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(6), pages 1-17, March.
    8. Maxwell Chukwudi Udeagha & Marthinus Christoffel Breitenbach, 2023. "The Role of Fiscal Decentralization in Limiting CO2 Emissions in South Africa," Biophysical Economics and Resource Quality, Springer, vol. 8(3), pages 1-30, September.
    9. Tinghui Wang & Qi Fu & Yue Wang & Mengfan Gao & Jinhua Chen, 2022. "The Interaction Mechanism of Fiscal Pressure, Local Government Behavioral Preferences and Environmental Governance Efficiency: Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta Region of China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-22, December.
    10. Junhua Chen & Na Liu, 2022. "The impact of fiscal decentralization on the efficiency in social housing provision: Evidence from China," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(8), pages 3404-3418, December.
    11. Changyun Zhou & Junxi Zhu & Zhuo Chen, 2024. "Fiscal Decentralization, Environmental Regulation, and Green Technological Innovation: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-17, May.
    12. Haijie Wang & Yong Geng & Jingxue Zhang & Xiqiang Xia & Yanchao Feng, 2021. "Ecological Civilization Demonstration Zone, Air Pollution Reduction, and Political Promotion Tournament in China: Empirical Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-12, November.
    13. Ruichao Liu & Xiaoyan Zhang & Pengcheng Wang, 2022. "A Study on the Impact of Fiscal Decentralization on Green Development from the Perspective of Government Environmental Preferences," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-22, August.
    14. Dingqing Wang & Enqi Zhang & Hongwei Liao, 2022. "Does Fiscal Decentralization Affect Regional High-Quality Development by Changing Peoples’ Livelihood Expenditure Preferences: Provincial Evidence from China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-20, August.
    15. Yueyang Zhao & Jinzhou Mao & Yueshan Li, 2022. "Local governments’ environmental emphasis and corporate green innovation: evidence from China," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 55(4), pages 2577-2603, November.
    16. Wenjian Luo & Yujie Liu, 2022. "Research on the Impact of Fiscal Decentralization on Governance Performance of Air Pollution—Empirical Evidence of 30 Provinces from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-21, September.
    17. Maxwell Chukwudi Udeagha & Marthinus Christoffel Breitenbach, 2023. "Revisiting the nexus between fiscal decentralization and CO2 emissions in South Africa: fresh policy insights," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 1-46, December.
    18. Zhuoxi Yu & Yu Wu & Zhichuan Zhu, 2023. "Fiscal Decentralization, Environmental Regulation and High-Quality Economic Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-20, May.
    19. Yuchen Song & Jingshu Ma & Shuai Guan & Yongfu Liu, 2022. "Fiscal Decentralization, Regional Innovation and Industrial Structure Distortions in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhigao Luo & Xinyun Hu & Mingming Li & Jirui Yang & Chuanhao Wen, 2019. "Centralization or Decentralization of Environmental Governance—Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-20, December.
    2. He, Qichun, 2015. "Fiscal decentralization and environmental pollution: Evidence from Chinese panel data," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 86-100.
    3. Jianing Zang & Liangliang Liu, 2020. "Fiscal decentralization, government environmental preference, and regional environmental governance efficiency: evidence from China," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 65(2), pages 439-457, October.
    4. Sailian Xia & Daming You & Zhihua Tang & Bo Yang, 2021. "Analysis of the Spatial Effect of Fiscal Decentralization and Environmental Decentralization on Carbon Emissions under the Pressure of Officials’ Promotion," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-21, March.
    5. Liangliang Liu & Donghong Ding & Jun He, 2019. "The welfare effects of fiscal decentralization: a simple model and evidence from China," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 417-434, January.
    6. Liangliang Liu, 2021. "Fiscal decentralization and the imbalance between consumption and investment in China," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 66(1), pages 1-17, February.
    7. Wu, Haitao & Hao, Yu & Ren, Siyu, 2020. "How do environmental regulation and environmental decentralization affect green total factor energy efficiency: Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    8. Zhuoxi Yu & Yu Wu & Zhichuan Zhu, 2023. "Fiscal Decentralization, Environmental Regulation and High-Quality Economic Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-20, May.
    9. Che, Jiahua & Chung, Kim-Sau & Lu, Yang K., 2017. "Decentralization and political career concerns," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 201-210.
    10. Meng Lingyan & Ze Zhao & Haider Ali Malik & Asif Razzaq & Hui An & Marria Hassan, 2022. "Asymmetric impact of fiscal decentralization and environmental innovation on carbon emissions: Evidence from highly decentralized countries," Energy & Environment, , vol. 33(4), pages 752-782, June.
    11. Bo, Shiyu, 2020. "Centralization and regional development: Evidence from a political hierarchy reform to create cities in china," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    12. Xianpu Xu & Shan Li, 2022. "Neighbor-Companion or Neighbor-Beggar? Estimating the Spatial Spillover Effects of Fiscal Decentralization on China’s Carbon Emissions Based on Spatial Econometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-26, August.
    13. Stefan Brehm & Jesper Svensson, 2017. "A fragmented environmental state? Analysing spatial compliance patterns for the case of transparency legislation in China," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 471-493, October.
    14. Sun, Yunpeng & Gao, Pengpeng & Razzaq, Asif, 2023. "How does fiscal decentralization lead to renewable energy transition and a sustainable environment? Evidence from highly decentralized economies," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 1064-1074.
    15. Chenggang Xu, 2011. "The Fundamental Institutions of China's Reforms and Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1076-1151, December.
    16. Zhou, Shiyu & Luo, Weijie, 2024. "Pollution consequences of vertical fiscal imbalance: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 85-97.
    17. Yu, Yongze & Li, Ke & Duan, Shenglan & Song, Chenchen, 2023. "Economic growth and environmental pollution in China: New evidence from government work reports," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    18. Federico Boffa & Amedeo Piolatto & Giacomo A. M. Ponzetto, 2016. "Political Centralization and Government Accountability," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(1), pages 381-422.
    19. Sam Bucovetsky & Michael Smart, 2006. "The Efficiency Consequences of Local Revenue Equalization: Tax Competition and Tax Distortions," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 8(1), pages 119-144, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:22:p:8661-:d:448947. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.