Criminal enforcement and environmental performance: Evidence from China

IF 6.6 2区经济学 Q1 ECOLOGY Ecological Economics Pub Date : 2024-06-08 DOI:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108267

Xian Liu , Wen Wang , Shoujun Huang

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The past decade has witnessed an escalation of using criminal enforcement to enhance environmental compliance in China. The purpose of this study is to examine the deterrent effects of criminal enforcement on environmental crimes. To this end, we explore a unique environmental supervision and compliance dataset of Chinese facilities. Our empirical analysis shows that criminal enforcement significantly enhances firms' environmental performance. The preferred specifications suggest that presence of criminal charges in a city is associated with a 12% reduction in the number of environmental violations. This result is robust to different specifications and alternative measures. Our findings further show that the deterrent effect is more pronounced in inland cities and those “non-key” environmental protection cities. It suggests that criminal enforcement has significant complementary effects in enhancing compliance in areas where administrative enforcement is insufficient.

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刑事执法与环境绩效：来自中国的证据

在过去十年中，中国利用刑事执法加强环境守法的做法不断升级。本研究旨在探讨刑事执法对环境犯罪的威慑作用。为此，我们探索了一个独特的中国设施环境监管和合规数据集。我们的实证分析表明，刑事执法能显著提高企业的环境绩效。首选规格表明，一个城市中刑事指控的存在与环境违法数量减少 12% 相关。这一结果在不同的规格和其他衡量标准下都是稳健的。我们的研究结果进一步表明，威慑效应在内陆城市和 "非重点 "环保城市更为明显。这表明，在行政执法力度不足的地区，刑事执法在加强守法方面具有显著的补充作用。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Ecological Economics 环境科学-环境科学

CiteScore

12.00

自引率

5.70%

发文量

313

审稿时长

6 months

期刊介绍： Ecological Economics is concerned with extending and integrating the understanding of the interfaces and interplay between "nature''s household" (ecosystems) and "humanity''s household" (the economy). Ecological economics is an interdisciplinary field defined by a set of concrete problems or challenges related to governing economic activity in a way that promotes human well-being, sustainability, and justice. The journal thus emphasizes critical work that draws on and integrates elements of ecological science, economics, and the analysis of values, behaviors, cultural practices, institutional structures, and societal dynamics. The journal is transdisciplinary in spirit and methodologically open, drawing on the insights offered by a variety of intellectual traditions, and appealing to a diverse readership. Specific research areas covered include: valuation of natural resources, sustainable agriculture and development, ecologically integrated technology, integrated ecologic-economic modelling at scales from local to regional to global, implications of thermodynamics for economics and ecology, renewable resource management and conservation, critical assessments of the basic assumptions underlying current economic and ecological paradigms and the implications of alternative assumptions, economic and ecological consequences of genetically engineered organisms, and gene pool inventory and management, alternative principles for valuing natural wealth, integrating natural resources and environmental services into national income and wealth accounts, methods of implementing efficient environmental policies, case studies of economic-ecologic conflict or harmony, etc. New issues in this area are rapidly emerging and will find a ready forum in Ecological Economics.