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Environmental Regulation and Exports: Evidence from the Comprehensive Air Pollution Policy in China

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  • Hong Chen

    (Economics and Management School, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China)

  • Yang Xu

    (Economics and Management School, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China)

Abstract

The impact of environmental regulation has been an important topic. Based on the Chinese Custom Database and China City Statistical Yearbook, this paper investigates the effect of environmental regulation on export values and explores potential mechanisms and heterogeneous effects. Taking advantage of China’s first comprehensive air pollution prevention and control plan, the Air Pollution Control in Key Zones policy, as a quasi-natural experiment, we employ the difference-in-differences method to examine the causal relationship between environmental regulation and exports. We find the statistically significant and negative effect of environmental regulation on exports at the city level. Moreover, we find that the potential mechanism is the change in export values caused by firm entry and exit, especially by exiters, rather than the change in the number of exporting firms in the city caused by firm entry and exit. In addition, we find the heterogeneous effects of environmental regulation based on the differences of environmental policy across cities and the Broad Economic Categories classification.

Suggested Citation

  • Hong Chen & Yang Xu, 2021. "Environmental Regulation and Exports: Evidence from the Comprehensive Air Pollution Policy in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-11, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:3:p:1316-:d:491294
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    Cited by:

    1. Ke Zhang & Xingwei Wang, 2021. "Pollution Haven Hypothesis of Global CO 2 , SO 2 , NO x —Evidence from 43 Economies and 56 Sectors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-27, June.
    2. Xiaokang Yang & Junbing Xu & Minling Zhu & Yinglong Yang, 2022. "Environmental regulation and corporate tax avoidance—Evidence from China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(1), pages 1-12, January.
    3. Zeng, Juying & Ren, Jun & Ning, Zhenzhen, 2022. "Mediating effect of corporate social responsibility-based entrepreneurship on environmental improvement: Evidence from 475 heavy-polluting enterprises," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 506-517.
    4. Haotian Zhang & Xiumei Sun & Xueyang Wang & Su Yan, 2022. "Winning the Blue Sky Defense War: Assessing Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Based on Synthetic Control Method," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-18, August.
    5. Yinhao Wu & Shumin Yu & Xiangdong Duan, 2021. "The Impact of Environmental Regulation on the Location of Pollution-Intensive Industries in China under Agglomeration Effect," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-14, April.

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