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Comprehensive investigation and analysis of the effects of policies on energy conservation and emission reduction or envi⁃ ronmental regulation have important reference value for the specific implementation of environmental regulation policies. Based on the provincial panel data of China from 2000 to 2019, the present study took the introduction of the Action Plan for Air Pollution Prevention and Control as a quasi-natural experiment and used the DID approach to conduct causal identification. Eight provinces or municipali⁃ ties in the three regions of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta were selected as the treatment group and the other provinces as the control group. The regional differences in energy mismatch effects of environmental regulation poli⁃ cies were evaluated by comparing the sample areas in the treatment group and the control group. According to the empirical analysis, environmental regulation policies had a significant negative effect on energy mismatch, i.e., the greater the intensity of environmental regulation policies, the stricter the constraints on enterprises, and the higher the internalized cost of enterprises. The continuous im⁃ provement in energy marginal output of 'forced' enterprises made the energy mismatch index higher. Combined with typical facts, it was found that the current environmental regulation policies had a role in promoting the over-distribution of energy mismatch. Specifi⁃ cally, after 2013, when the energy mismatch index in many regions exceeded 1, they did not show a trend of approaching 1, but instead continued to rise at a fast speed. Further research showed that regional differences in environmental regulation policies led to regional differences in energy mismatch effects, which were realized through different levels of implementation intensity of local governments. That is, the stronger the implementation intensity of local governments in accordance with the central environmental regulation require⁃ ments, the higher the energy mismatch index. Finally, based on the research conclusions, this paper puts forward some suggestions for the improvement of environmental regulation policies in the next stage. First, the institutional arrangement of regional differences in en⁃ vironmental regulation policies is a 'double-edged sword'. Although it can make the regions have a target based on their local realities, it is not conducive to the construction of a large unified domestic market. Second, it is suggested that energy market reform be accelerat⁃ ed, that prices play a leading role, and that the role of the market in energy allocation be enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reasonable risk-taking is an important prerequisite for corporate green transformation. How environmental regulation policies affect corporate risk-taking is an issue worthy of discussion under the background of the development of economic and social green transformation. Based on a theoretical analysis of the effects of environmental regulations, this study used the data of China’ s A-share listed companies from 2004 to 2019 to empirically test the impact of environmental regulation policies on corporate risk-taking. The study found that: ① The strengthening of environmental regulations would significantly increase the level of corporate risk-taking. ② The mechanism test found that both the ‘dynamic effect’ of environmental regulations promoting technological progress and market competition efficiency and the ‘pressure effect’ aggravating enterprises’ production costs and the degree of enterprises’ shadow banking activities would lead to a rise in the level of corporate risk-taking. ③ The regional innovation environment and the cost transfer ability of enterprises significantly affected the policy effect of environmental regulations on improving corporate risk-taking. ④ Further re⁃ search showed that environmental regulations promoted corporate risk-taking, reduced the environmental performance of enterprises, and improved the default risk of enterprises, indicating that the negative effect brought by ‘pressure effect’ occupied a dominant position. This study has not only enriched the research on the effects of environmental regulation policies, but also expanded the research horizons of factors affecting corporate risk-taking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scarcity of resources in the environment determines the inevitable conflict between economic growth and environmental protection, and the environment as a public good determines that environmental protection and ecological management should be included in the scope of government regulation. Taking the panel data of 30 Chinese provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) as the sample, this study first constructed the index system of high-quality economic development with the five major development concepts of 'innovation, coordination, openness, greenness, and sharing' as the guide. Based on the shortcomings of the existing measurement methods in equalizing the weight distribution of indicators, we proposed the combination of the coefficient of variation method with the entropy weight method to measure the comprehensive index of high-quality economic development. Secondly, the random forest algorithm was used to filter the variables based on the importance of model variables. Finally, we empirically investigated the heterogeneity in the impact of environmental regulatory policy synergies on high-quality economic development using penalized panel quantile regressions that fully accounted for the characteristics of data outliers. The results showed that there was significant heterogeneity in the impact of environmental regulation policy synergies on high-quality economic development. Specifically, the result showed that: 1 The combination of Policy 2 and Policy 3 had the best synergy effect in regions with lower levels of high-quality economic development (0.1 quantile), and the synergistic effect of the three policy combinations was optimal in regions with more developed levels of high-quality economic development. 2 Policy synergies had a positive impact on high-quality economic development, with a 'U'-shaped change, i.e. as the degree of policy synergies increased, the level of high-quality economic development tended to fall first and then rise. 3 The output elasticity value of policy synergies did not cross the 'inflection point' in regions with less developed levels of high-quality economic development. This result somewhat inhibited high-quality economic development, supporting the 'cost of compliance' argument. However, the output elasticity values of the better developed regions crossed the 'inflection point'. The findings supported the 'innovation compensation theory'. Therefore, to reduce inter regional differences, cooperation between governments at all levels and relevant departments should be strengthened to continuously promote policy synergies and improve the efficiency of policy combinations, which will not only benefit the ecological environment, but also improve factor productivity and energy efficiency, thus promoting quality inter-regional economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As urban agglomerations have become the main spatial organization form in China, it is of great significance to carry out environmental cooperative governance based on urban agglomerations. Research on the interaction of environmental regulation enforcement among cities can provide a new explanation for the competition and cooperation in terms of pollution control in urban agglomerations. This article selected three types of environmental regulation policy tools: market-incentive, command-and-control, and their combinations, and analyzed the interaction pattern of environmental regulations based on the theoretical mechanism derivation and the two zone spatial Durbin model by using the panel data of 103 cities in China. Then, the SLX model was used to explore the impact of the interaction of environmental regulations on the cooperative governance of pollution in five urban agglomerations. The results showed that the market-incentive environmental regulation was not fully implemented, which meant that some cities adopted a 'race to the bottom' strategy in response of the competition with their neighbors. After combining market-incentive environmental regulation with command and-control environmental regulation, the pattern of environmental regulation interaction between cities changed from ' race to the bottom' to 'race to the top'. This interactive characteristic was particularly significant in the Yangtze River Delta and the Chengdu Chongqing urban agglomerations. However, the 'racing to the top' characteristic of these two urban agglomerations had different effects on the intercity environmental cooperation: there was a synergy effect caused by strong spillover effect of environmental regulation implementation in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration rather than in the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]