环境信息披露的污染减排效应评估

本文利用我国2008年正式实施环境信息披露制度这一外生冲击构造准自然实验,基于2004-2017年我国285个城市的面板数据,通过双重差分法系统评估环境信息披露对工业污染物排放的影响。克服环境信息披露的测量困难与内生性问题,首次考察环境信息披露的污染减排效果,并借助数理模型对其影响机制进行规范阐释。研究发现,环境信息披露能够显著降低工业污染物排放水平,且该影响具有一定的时滞性和长期性;同时,减排作用会随地区环境污染程度和环境规制力度的增强而呈现递增规律;此外,机制分析的结果表明,其传导机制主要来自于产业结构转型和减排技术进步。为验证研究结论的稳健性,本文提供了平行趋势、工具变量、安慰剂等多种方法的检验结果。本文的研究在经验上丰富了环境信息披露与环境污染治理之间关系的相关讨论,为提升我国环境污染治理水平、打赢污染防治攻坚战提供有益的政策启示。

Assessment of the Pollution Reduction Effect of Environmental Information Disclosure

This paper uses China’s formal implementation of the environmental information disclosure system in 2008 as an exogenous shock to construct a quasi-natural experiment. Based on the panel data from 285 cities in China from 2004 to 2017, the impact of environmental information disclosure on industrial pollutant emissions is assessed with DID method. Overcoming the difficulties in measuring environmental information disclosure and the endogenous problem, this paper investigates the pollution reduction effect of environmental information disclosure and illustrates its mechanism by means of mathematical model for the first time. The results show that environmental information disclosure can significantly reduce the industrial pollutant emissions, and this impact has a certain time lag and long-term nature. At the same time, the effect of reduction shows an increasing quality with the enhancement of environmental pollution and environmental regulation in the region. In addition, the results of the mechanism analysis show that the transmission mechanism mainly comes from the transformation of industrial structure and the progress of emission reduction technology. In order to verify the robustness of the conclusions, this paper provides the test results of parallel trends, tool variables, placebos and other methods. This paper enriches the relevant discussions of the relationship between environmental information disclosure and environmental pollution control, and provides a useful policy enlightenment to improve the environmental pollution control in China and win the battle in pollution control and prevention. The mechanism by which environmental information disclosure affects pollution reduction is multifaceted. However, this paper only conducts empirical investigations based on city macro data from two aspects: the transformation of industrial structure and the progress of emission reduction technology. Future relevant research can be carried out based on enterprise micro data from other aspects to have a full understanding of the mechanism.