Baoxi Li

Green total factor productivity (GTFP) is a key factor for achieving sustainable development and enhancing economic competitiveness. Environmental information disclosure plays a significant role in improving the corporate GTFP. Using A-share-listed company data in China from 2009 to 2019, this study employs the Ambient Air Quality Standards (GB3095-2012) promulgated by China in 2012 as a quasi-natural experiment. This study employs difference-in-differences (DID) to examine the impact of environmental information disclosure on corporate GTFP. The findings reveal that on average, environmental information disclosure positively affects firms’ GTFP. Mechanism analyses show that environmental information disclosure promotes GTFP by increasing total corporate costs, alleviating corporate financing constraints, and promoting green technological innovation. Environmental information disclosure mainly affects non-state-owned smaller, and young enterprises. These conclusions provide theoretical support and empirical evidence for governments to leverage environmental information disclosure to promote green and sustainable development, thereby achieving high-quality economic growth.

Numerous studies have investigated the relationship between income inequality and objective environmental pollution, but few focus on the nexus between income inequality and subjective environmental pollution (SEP). Using micro data from the Chinese General Society Survey (CGSS) in 2013 and official statistical data at the provincial level, this paper tests the impact of individual-level income inequality on subjective environmental pollution in China. The results show that individual-level income inequality has an inverted U-shape relationship with subjective environmental pollution, which indicates that increasing the income inequality at the individual level will first rise and then reduce their perceived subjective environmental pollution after reaching the peak. For about 84% of respondents, their subjective environmental pollution decreases with the increase of individual-level income inequality. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analyses show that the income inequality of urban residents and of the locals have an inverted U-shape effect on SEP, and the SEP of females and of individuals with positive environmental attitude are more sensitive to the effect of income inequality. Additionally, we find that subjective well-being plays a mediating role in the relation between income inequality and SEP. Individual income inequality decreases their self-reported well-being, and an increase in well-being has a negative effect on their subjectively perceived environmental quality. We also find non-television media exposures, such as newspaper, magazine, broadcasting, Internet, and mobile custom messages, will amplify the effect of individual-level income inequality on subjective environmental pollution.

This paper examines a causal relationship between the opening of a city’s subway system and its air quality by exploiting daily data on prefecture-level cities in China from 2000 to 2012. Using multi-period difference in differences (DID) method, we find that air quality can be significantly improved following a subway system opening. Robustness tests support the fundamental empirical results. Heterogeneity analysis shows that cities in the eastern and western regions and cities with higher GDP or cities with larger population experience greater and more significant reduction in pollution. We further find that the air pollution continues to decrease with the extension and prolonged operating period of a subway system. Mechanism analysis shows that the resulted air pollution index (API) reduction is due to the substitution effect of taxi.