Can ecological compensation reduce air pollution? New evidence from resource-based cities in China

ABSTRACT

China has made great efforts to establish an ecological compensation mechanism, but there lacks empirical evidence on whether this scheme effectively reduces air pollution. To test the effectiveness of air quality ecological compensation (AQEC) on air pollution control, this study considers 114 resource-based cities in China and uses a multi-period difference-in-difference (DID) model for empirical analysis. The finding shows that the AQEC policy significantly reduces the concentration of air pollutants by promoting air pollution prevention and local authority enthusiasm for pollution abatement, resulting in an average annual decrease in PM_2.5 concentrations of approximately 3.9 µg/m³ in the pilot cities. The AQEC policy of resource-based cities in eastern and northern China, and those with less financial pressure have greater inhibitory effects on air pollution. The study recommends establishing long-term protection mechanisms and implementing differentiated policies focused on green technological innovation and financial autonomy.

Highlights

• We evaluate the effects of AQEC policy implementation via a multi-period DID model.

• AQEC policy can effectively reduce PM_2.5 concentration in resource-based cities.

• Geographic location, fiscal pressure, and assessment way cause differential impacts.

• Green technology innovation and fiscal autonomy are intermediate dependent paths.

KEYWORDS:

• Resource-based cities
• ecological compensation
• PM_2.5
• multi-period difference-in-difference model
• heterogeneity analysis

Abbreviations

AQEC	=	Air quality ecological compensation
DID	=	Difference-in-difference
GBD	=	Global Burden of Disease
PM2.5	=	Atmospheric particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 micrometers
WHO	=	World Health Organization
PES	=	Payment for Ecosystem Services
PSM	=	Propensity Score Matching

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ https://english.www.gov.cn/policies/latestreleases/202109/13/content_WS613e84cbc6d0df57f98e0140.html

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (72374001, 71974001), the University Social Science Research Project of Anhui Province (2022AH020048), Anhui Provincial Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project (AHSKZD2022D01), Anhui Province Social Science Innovation and Development Research Project (2022ZD006).