The Impact of Pollution Events on the Productivity of Related Industries:A Case Study of Cadmium-Contaminated Industry

ABSTRACT

This research aims to explore how environmental pollution events affect total factor productivity in related industries in China. The results of the research found that (1) Cadmium-contaminated rice cases had negative impacts on the related industry after a time delay by reducing the production scale and investment in R&D to improve productive efficiency, therefore decreasing the total factor productivity. Rising public awareness significantly expanded the negative impact of environmental pollution events. (2) The more sophisticated environmental regulations at the provincial level, the more obvious the total factor productivity decreased after cadmium-contaminated rice cases. The effect of existing environmental regulations at the municipal and county levels was not satisfactory. (3) Cadmium-contaminated rice cases had a greater negative impact on East and Central China than other regions. The result also indicates cross-regional pollution transfer for the purpose of regulation evasion.

KEYWORDS:

• Cadmium-contaminated rice
• difference-in-difference model
• total factor productivity
• pollution management

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• C23
• Q52
• Q5
• Q58

Acknowledgments

This study was conducted under the “National Natural Sciences Foundation (71773052)”, “National Natural Sciences Foundation (71773053)”

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ The search index in this paper is based on the search volume of Internet users in Baidu, the search engine with the highest market share, with keywords as the statistical object, the search frequency weighting of each keyword in Baidu web search is analysed and calculated. According to the different data sources, the search index is divided into PC search index and mobile search index.

² Northeast China: Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning; East China: Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Anhui; North China: Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia; Central China: Hubei, Hunan, Henan, Jiangxi; South China: Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Fujian; Southwest China: Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, Yunnan, Tibet; Northwest China: Shaanxi, Gansu, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Ningxia.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [71773052,71773053]