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A fragmented environmental state? Analysing spatial compliance patterns for the case of transparency legislation in China

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  • Stefan Brehm

    (Lund University)

  • Jesper Svensson

    (Oxford University)

Abstract

Do Chinese cities compete for investments with lax environmental law enforcement? The here presented study suggests that this is true for some municipalities but not all of them. Based on data for 126 key environmental protection cities and regional economic hubs between 2010 and 2012 we show that economic decentralization and political centralization both shape spatial patterns of compliance with environmental transparency legislation. Our results give reason to suppose that the Chinese economy moved beyond homogenous preferences for low-cost regulatory arrangements. The emerging jurisdictional interaction is in line with a Tiebout sorting process, where cities compete with diverse factor packages to attract an optimal amount of investments.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:apjors:v:1:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s41685-017-0058-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s41685-017-0058-9
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    Cited by:

    1. Moriki Hosoe, 2017. "Special issue on economic analysis of law, politics, and regions," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 427-429, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    China; Environmental governance; Law implementation; Spatial Durbin;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism
    • P25 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Urban, Rural, and Regional Economics
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy
    • R58 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Regional Development Planning and Policy

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