This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. ASSA Annual Meeting
  3. 2021
  4. Preliminary Program
  5. Environmental Economics
« Back to Results

Environmental Economics

Paper Session

Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021 3:45 PM - 5:45 PM (EST)

Hosted By: Chinese Economists Society
  • Chair: Maoyong Fan, Ball State University

Residential Awareness and Environment Improvement: Evidence from the River Chief System in China

Yazhou Liu
,
Shanghai University
Yunqian Cheng
,
Shanghai University
Tianshu Li
,
Nanjing Audit University
Jinlan Ni
,
University of Washington and Nanjing Audit University

Abstract

As a flagship institutional innovation on river governance in China, the River Chief System (RCS) mainly requires the government to disclose information on the administrative responsibility and right to the public and invite public supervision. This system was first started by the city of Wuxi in order to cope with water pollution in the Tai Lake, and then eventually promoted throughout the country before June, 2018. Investigating the effect of the RCS and its mechanisms provides a valuable opportunity to explore the impact of the public goods information disclosure on its service quality, which is lacking in the literature. Using 1,228 self-collected questionnaires in 2018 and 2019 from residents in Shanghai, we exploit the variation in the timing when each township establishes the River Chief Office in Shanghai to identify the causal effect of information disclosure on rivers’ environment from both the government’s and the public’s perspectives. Our findings are as follows: (1)The information disclosure can improve rivers’ environment; (2) the information disclosure clarifies the government’s responsibilities and rights and urges relevant departments to enforce administrative regulation, which further improves the environment of rivers; (3) in terms of public participation, residents’ willingness to involve in river management increases due to supervision information disclosure, which also plays a role in the improvement of rivers’ environment.

Socioeconomic Impacts on Residential Demand for Electrical Services in China

Jun-Jun Jia
,
Hefei University of Technology
Jinlan Ni
,
University of Washington-Tacoma
Chu Wei
,
Renmin University of China

Abstract

Understanding the residential demand for various energy services is critical for utilities and policymakers for effective demand-side management. However, the practices usually treat the household as an analysis unit, thus may ignore the fact that the electricity consumption is induced demand driven by specific services. This study presents the pattern of various residential demand for electrical service and qualifies the impact of socioeconomic determinants in China. The conditional demand analysis model is performed on the unique dataset of Chinese Residential Energy Consumption Survey 2014 to estimate the electricity demand distribution of eight types services and investigate behavioral responses of socioeconomic variables to service-specific electricity consumption. It shows that both entertainment and fresh keeping services account for about half of the total annual electricity consumption, followed by laundry, lighting, space cooling, and hot water. Rural households use about 7.2% of total electricity for cooking purpose while urban counterparts hardly use electricity to cook. Electricity consumption is negligible for space heating for both urban and rural households. The heterogeneity in socioeconomic determinants are found not only among different electrical services but also between urban and rural households.

The Psychological Appeal of Lottery Tickets on Polluted Days

Shaoshuai Li
,
University of Macau
Jaimie W. Lien
,
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Jia Yuan
,
University of Macau

Abstract

We document a robust positive relationship between air pollution and lottery gambling, and investigate the mechanism for this relationship through psychological, chemical and economic channels. Other air quality factors equal, we find that sulfur dioxide (SO2) rather than subsequently formed particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) most robustly accounts for the relationship, suggesting a larger impact of the early particulate formation process than previously considered. In terms of psychological factors, holding air quality composition constant, reduced visibility conditions partially account for the increase in lottery gambling, indicating the importance of mood factors in the pollution-gambling link. I Analysis around a policy change of providing detailed AQI information to the public, shows that the categorical information , discontinuously enhances the pollution-gambling effect, specifically coinciding with the AQI transition into the “Unhealthy” category. That is, individuals’ propensity to purchase lottery tickets is markedly higher for AQI levels marginally above the “Unhealthy” cutoff, indicative of decision-makers’ limited attention to air pollution levels otherwise. Regional economic conditions, specifically unemployment rate and GDP per capita, enhance the appeal of lotteries under polluted conditions.

Location-Based Policies and Unintended Environmental Consequences: Evidence from an Industry Relocation Policy in China

Maoyong Fan
,
Ball State University
Jianxin Wu
,
Jinan University
Junji Xiao
,
University of Technology Sydney

Abstract

We examine the environmental consequences of an industrial relocation policy in
Guangdong, one of the most economically dynamic regions in China. The stated purpose
of the policy is to balance the economic development of different areas in the province.
Applying difference-in-difference-in-differences analysis to annual industry-county level
data, we show that water-pollution-intensive firms relocated from the Pearl River Delta
(PRD, a high-income region at the terminus of the Pearl River) to regions upstream from
the PRD. Since the PRD is substantially more developed than the upstream regions, this
policy resulted in more low-income people becoming exposed to high levels of water and
air pollution. Firms’ decisions to relocate were driven by the more favorable tax regimes
and less stringent pollution regulations in the non-PRD regions. The effects of the policy
on individual firms differed depending on their characteristics. Environmental regulations
were effective only in restraining the new entry of polluting firms into the non-PRD regions.
However, this effect was not strong enough to reverse the relocation trend of pollutionintensive
firms between the PRD and non-PRD areas
Discussant(s)
Maoyong Fan
,
Ball State University
Tianshu Li
,
Nanjing Audit University
Jia Yuan
,
University of Macau
Zhao Rong
,
Zhongnan University of Economics and Law
JEL Classifications
  • Q5 - Environmental Economics