Is NIMBY inevitable? An empirical exploration of determinants of public attitudes towards unwanted facilities using nationally representative data in China

ABSTRACT

‘Not in my Back Yard’ (NIMBY) protests against the construction of unwanted facilities nearby occur when individuals prioritize personal benefits over broader social benefits, which is an interesting phenomenon in China’s government-regulated market economic system. Although this fascinating phenomenon attracts plenty of research attention, it remains unknown regarding the extent of NIMBY intention and its influencing factors in China. This study describes the NIMBY intention of Chinese residents towards a large-scale chemical plant with low pollution and analyzes its determinants utilizing data from a nationally representative survey in 2017. It shows that 85% of the 38,775 respondents have strong NIMBY intentions. Among all factors, education and urbanization are the two most influential ones and are positively related to NIMBY intention. Besides, women, high-income groups, and people living in areas with strong social networks, high GDP per capita, or high pollution, exhibit strong NIMBY intention. Conversely, trust in the government and willingness to participate in public affairs are negatively correlated with NIMBY intention. Our study indicates that NIMBY intention will inevitably rise with educational attainment and urbanization levels, but the NIMBY dilemma can be alleviated by implementing participatory governance and building trust in local government.

KEYWORDS:

• NIMBY intention
• determinants
• pollution
• governance
• China

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• O18
• Q56
• Q58
• R14

Disclosure statement

The authors report that there are no competing interests to declare. We deeply appreciate Tianyu Wang for his insightful comments and help in many other ways.

Notes

¹ In this study, ‘city’ refers to the municipal-level city where residents live, including rural areas and urban areas.

² During a hearing, the government presents information regarding the project’s costs, revenues, financing and operational methods, among others. Subsequently, delegates have the opportunity to raise questions, make statements or deliver speeches about the projects. The willingness of individuals to participate in the hearing represents their level of interest in the project information, their perception of having a responsible role, and their belief that their presence can make a difference.

³ It assigns a value of 1 to the respondents who chose ‘allow building it near my residence’ and 0 to the respondents who chose ‘allow building it, but not near my residence’ or ‘oppose building it in this city’.

⁴ For example, the 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer, released by Edelman, the world’s largest public relations consulting firm, reveals that the Chinese public exhibits a remarkable level of trust in all four categories of organizations: government (scoring 89 out of 100), business (84), media (79), and non-governmental organizations (78). Meanwhile, the overall trust level remains at 83, which is the highest among all surveyed countries worldwide.

⁵ In our survey, 5.2%, 8.02%, 24.68%, 35.32%, and 26.77% of respondents reported ‘very low’, ‘low’, ‘average’, ‘high’, and ‘very high’ trust, respectively.

⁶ We also conduct a simple correlation analysis to confirm the positive correlation between share of floating population at the community level and a range of variables at the regional level.

Additional information

Funding

Financial supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71773010; 72373163) are acknowledged. The views expressed herein and any remaining errors are the authors’ and do not represent any official agency.