The costs of "blue sky": Environmental regulation, technology upgrading, and labor demand in China
The costs of "blue sky": Environmental regulation, technology upgrading, and labor demand in China
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DOI：
10.1016/j.jdeveco.2020.102610
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发表时间：
2021-02-22
影响因子：
5
通讯作者：
Zhang, Bing
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Liu, Mengdi;Tan, Ruipeng;Zhang, Bing
为了应对更严格的环境监管，制造企业需要开展污染减排活动，改变其最优生产决策，这可能会影响其劳动力需求。利用10年的企业层面面板数据集（1998-2007），我们使用倾向得分匹配（PSM）和差异中差（DID）估计器配对的估计技术来检验中国国家空气污染控制政策对就业的影响。我们发现，中国大气污染控制重点城市（KCAPC）政策有效降低了约26%的二氧化硫（SO2）排放量。新的环境法规显著减少了制造业劳动力需求约3%。最重要的是，企业主要通过生产技术的升级来减少污染排放，因此劳动力的下降部分是由于技术进步带来的劳动生产率的提高。由于污染减少，中国国内制造企业的低技能员工和工人受到环境监管的影响更大。
To cope with the stricter environmental regulation, manufacturing firms need to carry out pollution reduction activities and change their optimal production decisions, which may affect their labor demand. Using a ten-year firm-level panel dataset (1998-2007), we use an estimation technique pairing propensity score matching (PSM) with a difference-in-differences (DID) estimator to examine the impacts of a national air pollution control policy on employment in China. We find that China's Key Cities for Air Pollution Control (KCAPC) policy effectively lowered sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions by approximately 26%. The new environmental regulation significantly reduced manufacturing labor demand by approximately 3%. Most importantly, firms reduce pollution emission mainly by upgrading production technology so the decline in labor is partly due to the increase in labor productivity brought about by technological progress. As a result of pollution reduction, low-skilled employees and workers in domestic manufacturing firms are more affected by environmental regulation in China.