IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i11p6869-d831666.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental Regulation, Digital Financial Inclusion, and Environmental Pollution: An Empirical Study Based on the Spatial Spillover Effect and Panel Threshold Effect

Author

Listed:
  • Fenfen Shi

    (School of Management, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China)

  • Rijia Ding

    (School of Management, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China)

  • Heqing Li

    (School of Management, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China)

  • Suli Hao

    (School of Management, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China)

Abstract

Environmental regulation is a crucial tool for controlling environmental pollution. Digital finance is essential for the development of green finance. The relationship between environmental regulation and digital finance concerning environmental pollution is an issue worth exploring. This paper uses the spatial econometric model and the panel threshold model to empirically analyze the impact of environmental regulation and digital financial inclusion on environmental pollution using panel data from 30 Chinese provinces between 2011 and 2019. It mainly discusses the independent impact and synergy of environmental regulation and digital inclusive finance on environmental pollution. The research results show that the improvement of the intensity of environmental regulation and the development level of digital-inclusive finance can effectively alleviate the problem of environmental pollution. Moreover, environmental regulation and digital inclusive finance can coordinately control environmental pollution. A panel threshold analysis shows that as the intensity of environmental regulation increases, digital financial inclusion will reflect the function of environmental governance. Similarly, with the development of digital financial inclusion, environmental regulation has shown a significant inhibitory effect on environmental pollution. The results of a heterogeneity analysis show that the intensity of environmental regulation in the eastern region has a significant inhibitory effect on environmental pollution. Digital financial inclusion in the central region shows a strong environmental governance function. The intersection of environmental regulation and digital financial inclusion has shown a significant synergistic governance effect in the eastern region. Therefore, the government gives full play to the functions of environmental regulation and digital inclusive finance environmental governance to achieve coordinated governance of environmental pollution.

Suggested Citation

  • Fenfen Shi & Rijia Ding & Heqing Li & Suli Hao, 2022. "Environmental Regulation, Digital Financial Inclusion, and Environmental Pollution: An Empirical Study Based on the Spatial Spillover Effect and Panel Threshold Effect," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-28, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:11:p:6869-:d:831666
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6869/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6869/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Greenstone & Rema Hanna, 2014. "Environmental Regulations, Air and Water Pollution, and Infant Mortality in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(10), pages 3038-3072, October.
    2. Karen Palmer & Alan Krupnick & Hadi Dowlatabadi & Stuart Siegel, 1995. "Social Costing of Electricity in Maryland: Effects on Pollution, Investment, and Prices," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 1-26.
    3. Becker, Randy A., 2005. "Air pollution abatement costs under the Clean Air Act: evidence from the PACE survey," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 144-169, July.
    4. Charfeddine, Lanouar & Ben Khediri, Karim, 2016. "Financial development and environmental quality in UAE: Cointegration with structural breaks," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 1322-1335.
    5. Tamazian, Artur & Chousa, Juan Piñeiro & Vadlamannati, Krishna Chaitanya, 2009. "Does higher economic and financial development lead to environmental degradation: Evidence from BRIC countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 246-253, January.
    6. Joseph S. Shapiro & Reed Walker, 2018. "Why Is Pollution from US Manufacturing Declining? The Roles of Environmental Regulation, Productivity, and Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(12), pages 3814-3854, December.
    7. Jalil, Abdul & Feridun, Mete, 2011. "The impact of growth, energy and financial development on the environment in China: A cointegration analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 284-291, March.
    8. Stefan Ambec & Mark A. Cohen & Stewart Elgie & Paul Lanoie, 2013. "The Porter Hypothesis at 20: Can Environmental Regulation Enhance Innovation and Competitiveness?," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 7(1), pages 2-22, January.
    9. Allen Blackman & Arne Kildegaard, 2010. "Clean technological change in developing-country industrial clusters: Mexican leather tanning," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 12(3), pages 115-132, September.
    10. Ramón López & Amparo Palacios, 2014. "Why has Europe Become Environmentally Cleaner? Decomposing the Roles of Fiscal, Trade and Environmental Policies," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 58(1), pages 91-108, May.
    11. Smulders, Sjak & Tsur, Yacov & Zemel, Amos, 2012. "Announcing climate policy: Can a green paradox arise without scarcity?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 364-376.
    12. Robert Hoffmann & Chew-Ging Lee & Bala Ramasamy & Matthew Yeung, 2005. "FDI and pollution: a granger causality test using panel data," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(3), pages 311-317.
    13. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Shahzad, Syed Jawad Hussain & Ahmad, Nawaz & Alam, Shaista, 2016. "Financial development and environmental quality: The way forward," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 353-364.
    14. Becker, Randy A. & Pasurka, Carl & Shadbegian, Ronald J., 2013. "Do environmental regulations disproportionately affect small businesses? Evidence from the Pollution Abatement Costs and Expenditures survey," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 523-538.
    15. Eli Berman & Linda T. M. Bui, 2001. "Environmental Regulation And Productivity: Evidence From Oil Refineries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(3), pages 498-510, August.
    16. Greenstone, Michael, 2004. "Did the Clean Air Act cause the remarkable decline in sulfur dioxide concentrations?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 585-611, May.
    17. Daniel L. Millimet & Jayjit Roy, 2016. "Empirical Tests of the Pollution Haven Hypothesis When Environmental Regulation is Endogenous," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 652-677, June.
    18. Thomas Eichner & Rüdiger Pethig, 2011. "Carbon Leakage, The Green Paradox, And Perfect Future Markets," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 52(3), pages 767-805, August.
    19. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Solarin, Sakiru Adebola & Mahmood, Haider & Arouri, Mohamed, 2013. "Does financial development reduce CO2 emissions in Malaysian economy? A time series analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 145-152.
    20. Wang, Yan & Shen, Neng, 2016. "Environmental regulation and environmental productivity: The case of China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 758-766.
    21. Levinson, Arik, 1996. "Environmental regulations and manufacturers' location choices: Evidence from the Census of Manufactures," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1-2), pages 5-29, October.
    22. Diaz-Mendez, S.E. & Torres-Rodríguez, A.A. & Abatal, M. & Soberanis, M.A. Escalante & Bassam, A. & Pedraza-Basulto, G.K., 2018. "Economic, environmental and health co-benefits of the use of advanced control strategies for lighting in buildings of Mexico," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 401-409.
    23. Eskeland, Gunnar S. & Harrison, Ann E., 2003. "Moving to greener pastures? Multinationals and the pollution haven hypothesis," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 1-23, February.
    24. Cole, Matthew A., 2004. "Trade, the pollution haven hypothesis and the environmental Kuznets curve: examining the linkages," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 71-81, January.
    25. Susmita Dasgupta & Benoit Laplante & Hua Wang & David Wheeler, 2002. "Confronting the Environmental Kuznets Curve," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 16(1), pages 147-168, Winter.
    26. Xie, Rong-hui & Yuan, Yi-jun & Huang, Jing-jing, 2017. "Different Types of Environmental Regulations and Heterogeneous Influence on “Green” Productivity: Evidence from China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 104-112.
    27. Zhang, Yue-Jun, 2011. "The impact of financial development on carbon emissions: An empirical analysis in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 2197-2203, April.
    28. Thomas Bernauer & Vally Koubi, 2013. "Are bigger governments better providers of public goods? Evidence from air pollution," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 156(3), pages 593-609, September.
    29. Becker, Randy A. & Pasurka, Carl & Shadbegian, Ronald J., 2013. "Do environmental regulations disproportionately affect small businesses? Evidence from the Pollution Abatement Costs and Expenditures survey," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 523-538.
    30. Thiel, Christian & Nijs, Wouter & Simoes, Sofia & Schmidt, Johannes & van Zyl, Arnold & Schmid, Erwin, 2016. "The impact of the EU car CO2 regulation on the energy system and the role of electro-mobility to achieve transport decarbonisation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 153-166.
    31. Magat, Wesley A & Viscusi, W Kip, 1990. "Effectiveness of the EPA's Regulatory Enforcement: The Case of Industrial Effluent Standards," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(2), pages 331-360, October.
    32. Halkos, George E. & Paizanos, Epameinondas Α., 2013. "The effect of government expenditure on the environment:An empirical investigation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 48-56.
    33. Dasgupta, Susmita & Laplante, Benoit & Mamingi, Nlandu & Wang, Hua, 2001. "Inspections, pollution prices, and environmental performance: evidence from China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 487-498, March.
    34. Chien-Chiang Lee & Chun-Ping Chang & Pei-Fen Chen, 2008. "Do CO2 emission levels converge among 21 OECD countries? New evidence from unit root structural break tests," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(7), pages 551-556.
    35. Hui Zhao & Yaru Yang & Ning Li & Desheng Liu & Hui Li, 2021. "How Does Digital Finance Affect Carbon Emissions? Evidence from an Emerging Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-20, November.
    36. Michael Hoel, 2010. "Is there a Green Paradox?," CESifo Working Paper Series 3168, CESifo.
    37. Hans-Werner Sinn, 2008. "Public policies against global warming: a supply side approach," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 15(4), pages 360-394, August.
    38. Jiayu Wan & Zhengning Pu & Christophe Tavera, 2022. "The impact of digital finance on pollutants emission: evidence from chinese cities," Post-Print hal-03554233, HAL.
    39. Chi Zhang, 2017. "Population in China," Europe-Asia Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 69(8), pages 1333-1334, September.
    40. Saltari, Enrico & Travaglini, Giuseppe, 2011. "The effects of environmental policies on the abatement investment decisions of a green firm," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 666-685, September.
    41. Rijia Ding & Fenfen Shi & Suli Hao, 2022. "Digital Inclusive Finance, Environmental Regulation, and Regional Economic Growth: An Empirical Study Based on Spatial Spillover Effect and Panel Threshold Effect," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-25, April.
    42. Langpap, Christian & Shimshack, Jay P., 2010. "Private citizen suits and public enforcement: Substitutes or complements?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 235-249, May.
    43. Susana V. Mondschein & Ariel Schilkrut, 1997. "Optimal Investment Policies for Pollution Control in the Copper Industry," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 27(6), pages 69-87, December.
    44. Kingston, Kato Gogo, 2011. "The Dilemma of Minerals Dependent Economy: The case of Foreign Direct Investment and Pollution in Nigeria," MPRA Paper 28603, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    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. Mingzhao Xiong & Wenqi Li & Brian Sheng Xian Teo & Jaizah Othman, 2022. "Can China’s Digital Inclusive Finance Alleviate Rural Poverty? An Empirical Analysis from the Perspective of Regional Economic Development and an Income Gap," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-18, December.
    2. Yiqun Hu & Xiong Dai & Li Zhao, 2022. "Digital Finance, Environmental Regulation, and Green Technology Innovation: An Empirical Study of 278 Cities in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-17, July.
    3. Yuling Yuan & Dukangqi Li, 2023. "Urban Economic Efficiency, Environmental Factors, and Digital Finance: Impacts on Sustainable Development in Chinese Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-22, September.
    4. Min Zhou & Hua Zhang & Zixuan Zhang & Hanxiaoxue Sun, 2023. "Digital Financial Inclusion, Cultivated Land Transfer and Cultivated Land Green Utilization Efficiency: An Empirical Study from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-19, January.
    5. Mingzhao Xiong & Wenqi Li & Chenjie Jenny & Peixu Wang, 2023. "Financial Inclusion through Digitalization: Improving Emerging Drivers of Industrial Pollution—Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-17, June.

    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. Acheampong, Alex O., 2019. "Modelling for insight: Does financial development improve environmental quality?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 156-179.
    2. AhAtil, Ahmed & Bouheni, Faten Ben & Lahiani, Amine & Shahbaz, Muhammad, 2019. "Factors influencing CO2 Emission in China: A Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lags Investigation," MPRA Paper 91190, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 02 Jan 2019.
    3. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Nasir, Muhammad Ali & Roubaud, David, 2018. "Environmental degradation in France: The effects of FDI, financial development, and energy innovations," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 843-857.
    4. Deng, Qiu Shi & Alvarado, Rafael & Cuesta, Lizeth & Tillaguango, Brayan & Murshed, Muntasir & Rehman, Abdul & Işık, Cem & López-Sánchez, Michelle, 2022. "Asymmetric impacts of foreign direct investment inflows, financial development, and social globalization on environmental pollution," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 236-251.
    5. Mohamed Abdouli & Sami Hammami, 2020. "Economic Growth, Environment, FDI Inflows, and Financial Development in Middle East Countries: Fresh Evidence from Simultaneous Equation Models," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 11(2), pages 479-511, June.
    6. Muhammad Shahbaz & Mehmet Akif Destek & Michael L. Polemis, 2018. "Do Foreign Capital and Financial Development Affect Clean Energy Consumption and Carbon Emissions? Evidence from BRICS and Next-11 Countries," SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, SPOUDAI Journal of Economics and Business, University of Piraeus, vol. 68(4), pages 20-50, October-D.
    7. Osman Murat Telatar & Tugce Adimli, 2024. "Impact of Foreign Direct Investment on Renewable Energy Consumption: Findings from Bootstrap ARDL with a Fourier Function," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 14(5), pages 301-310, September.
    8. Yaping He & Pengfei Sheng & Marek Vochozka, 2017. "Pollution caused by finance and the relative policy analysis in China," Energy & Environment, , vol. 28(7), pages 808-823, November.
    9. Tonghui Lian & Tingyu Ma & Jie Cao & You Wu, 2016. "The effects of environmental regulation on the industrial location of China’s manufacturing," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 80(2), pages 1381-1403, January.
    10. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Nasir, Muhammad Ali & Hille, Erik & Mahalik, Mantu Kumar, 2020. "UK's net-zero carbon emissions target: Investigating the potential role of economic growth, financial development, and R&D expenditures based on historical data (1870–2017)," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    11. Ulucak, Zübeyde Şentürk & İlkay, Salih Çağrı & Özcan, Burcu & Gedikli, Ayfer, 2020. "Financial globalization and environmental degradation nexus: Evidence from emerging economies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    12. Aurolipsa Das & Narayan Sethi, 2023. "Modelling the environmental pollution-institutional quality nexus in low- and middle-income countries: exploring the role of financial development and educational level," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 1492-1518, February.
    13. Acheampong, Alex O. & Amponsah, Mary & Boateng, Elliot, 2020. "Does financial development mitigate carbon emissions? Evidence from heterogeneous financial economies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    14. Xinfei Li & Baodong Cheng & Qiling Hong & Chang Xu, 2021. "Can a Win–Win Situation of Economy and Environment Be Achieved in Cities by the Government’s Environmental Regulations?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-20, May.
    15. Alotaish Mohammed Saud M. & Ping Guo & Ihtisham ul Haq & Guoqin Pan & Alam Khan, 2019. "Do government expenditure and financial development impede environmental degradation in Venezuela?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, January.
    16. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Nasreen, Samia & Abbas, Faisal & Anis, Omri, 2015. "Does foreign direct investment impede environmental quality in high-, middle-, and low-income countries?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 275-287.
    17. Vaishali S. Dhingra, 2023. "Financial development, economic growth, globalisation and environmental quality in BRICS economies: evidence from ARDL bounds test approach," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 1651-1682, June.
    18. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3qoljitavv93bptuhfaq9drocb is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Wen Jun & Muhammad Zakaria & Syed Jawad Hussain Shahzad & Hamid Mahmood, 2018. "Effect of FDI on Pollution in China: New Insights Based on Wavelet Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-20, October.
    20. Matthew E. Kahn & Nancy Lozano‐Gracia & Maria Edisa Soppelsa, 2021. "Pollution'S Role In Reducing Urban Quality Of Life In The Developing World," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 330-347, February.
    21. Demena, Binyam Afewerk & Afesorgbor, Sylvanus Kwaku, 2020. "The effect of FDI on environmental emissions: Evidence from a meta-analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).

    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:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:11:p:6869-:d:831666. 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.