{"title":"The effect of government-firm relationship on pollution reduction: The role of official performance appraisal","authors":"Gaoyi Lin , Changtuo Xu , Hailin Chen , Kai Tang","doi":"10.1016/j.chieco.2024.102243","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This paper investigates the unexpected positive effect of the government-firm relationship on environmental governance in the context of the reform of official performance appraisal (OPA) in China. In 2013, the central government launched an OPA reform that aimed to reduce the dependence on GDP growth and increase the focus on environmental protection in the appraisal process. According to the empirical results, in cities with mayors who have promotion incentives, firms that received favor from local governments can significantly reduce air pollutant emissions after the OPA reform. These findings remain robust even after conducting various tests, such as parallel trend test, omitted variables, and alternative explanations. This paper demonstrates that a reciprocal relationship between governments and firms can benefit society with the appropriate incentives.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48285,"journal":{"name":"中国经济评论","volume":"87 ","pages":"Article 102243"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"中国经济评论","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X24001329","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This paper investigates the unexpected positive effect of the government-firm relationship on environmental governance in the context of the reform of official performance appraisal (OPA) in China. In 2013, the central government launched an OPA reform that aimed to reduce the dependence on GDP growth and increase the focus on environmental protection in the appraisal process. According to the empirical results, in cities with mayors who have promotion incentives, firms that received favor from local governments can significantly reduce air pollutant emissions after the OPA reform. These findings remain robust even after conducting various tests, such as parallel trend test, omitted variables, and alternative explanations. This paper demonstrates that a reciprocal relationship between governments and firms can benefit society with the appropriate incentives.
期刊介绍:
The China Economic Review publishes original works of scholarship which add to the knowledge of the economy of China and to economies as a discipline. We seek, in particular, papers dealing with policy, performance and institutional change. Empirical papers normally use a formal model, a data set, and standard statistical techniques. Submissions are subjected to double-blind peer review.