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This paper investigates a grassroots Chinese movement called the New Rural Reconstruction Movement (NRRM). Drawing on field visits, surveys, interviews and social media posts regarding a NRRM project and relevant literature I link the NRRM to the degrowth movement. This is likely the first research analysing a Chinese grass-roots movement from a degrowth theoretical perspective. This link is designed to bring greater awareness of the NRRM to western environmentalists and greater awareness of degrowth to Chinese scholars, in the expectation that the two movements will find it beneficial to engage in collaborative research. This paper demonstrates similar progressive environmental based arguments are being debated in places with different geographical and socio-political contexts. It suggests there is the possibility that the NRRM and degrowth could work together to help achieve shared goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy poverty is a serious problem worldwide that negatively impacts the subjective well-being of elderly residents. This paper aims to explore this relationship. Firstly, based on 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2018 data of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) launched by Peking University for 125 prefecture-level cities, representing 32,490 observations, this paper effectively and multidimensionally measures the level of individual energy poverty. Secondly, a mediating model is adopted to study the causal effect between energy poverty and subjective well-being through the OLS and 2SLS methods using carefully selected instrumental variables to overcome potential endogeneity. Finally, through a variety of robustness tests, the stability of the above causal effects is verified. The results show that energy poverty negatively affects senior citizens' subjective well-being. Health, depression level, and household food expenditure level can be used as the micro mechanism between the two variables. The above factors have a greater impact on those senior citizens with low educational backgrounds, from relatively low-income families, living alone, and having an urban household registration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grassland Ecological Compensation Policy (GECP) is a large-scale program in which China has invested since 2011 to alleviate grassland degradation and increase herders' income. Although the amount invested in the program has increased each year, little research has been conducted to evaluate the impacts of the program; as such, this study examines such impacts on livestock production, grazing intensity, and structure using panel data from a herders' field survey conducted in 2015 in Inner Mongolia, China. Results from the econometric models show that the forage-livestock balance, which is one sub-policy of the GECP, had incentivized large farms to reduce their total number of sheep, but the implementation of the GECP could not greatly influence the reduction in the number of cattle present on any farm size. This study also reveals that herders made their livestock production and grazing decisions in response to market prices and that herder households that also had off-farm jobs raised fewer livestock and grazed lighter. Several policy implications are discussed in this paper. • We evaluate the impacts of grassland conservation subsidy on livestock. • Herders' survey and econometric models are used. • Subsidies were found to be more effective for larger farms. • Herders make livestock production decisions in response to livestock market prices. • Herder households with off-farm jobs raised fewer livestock and grazed lighter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Household carbon emissions account for a significant proportion of the national total emissions. Using a unique nation-wide survey data, this paper investigates the impact of different subjective measures of social awareness on household carbon emissions in China. Subjective variables are found to have significant impacts on household carbon emissions. Feeling secure, compliance with rules, and happiness have negative and significant effects on household carbon emissions, whereas the impact of interest in social issues is positive, which indicates the existence of a gap between awareness and behavior. The impacts of consumer lifestyles on the relationship between awareness and household emissions are also explored and are found to play a significant role in the relationship between awareness and emissions. People with a frugal lifestyle not only associate with lower emissions but also reinforce the role of social awareness. Furthermore, substantial differences are found across rural/urban areas and regional and income groups in China. The government should further promote a green lifestyle and give households more incentives to engage in green consumption behavior. Highlights • Household emissions are studied based on China Household Finance Survey. • Subjective factors are found to have significant impacts on household emissions. • Lifestyles matter in the relationship between awareness and household emissions. • Regional and income differences are considered in the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Those living in marginal conditions can be vulnerable to changes in ecosystem services. Assessing vulnerability to ecosystem service change at disaggregated and community-relevant spatial scales is virtually absent in the literature. In this paper we develop a method to spatially assess communities' vulnerability to ecosystem service change by estimating trends in ecosystem service supply and demand interactions over time. We apply this method to analyze supply and demand dynamics around water security for 3873 settlements in the Miyun Reservoir watershed near Beijing, China. Community settlements were identified with high-resolution satellite imagery, allowing for a disaggregated assessment of supply and demand dynamics at a very fine spatial scale. Settlement-level demand trends are calculated with commonly available government statistics. Supply trends are estimated with land use data and common ecosystem service modeling software. Notably, our calculation of settlement-level ES supply is spatially aware, taking into account upstream communities' water needs. Our results reveal patterns of community vulnerability across the landscape and suggest ways to identify mechanisms that underlie communities' vulnerability risk. By analyzing trends over two periods, we are able to identify clusters that appear to adopt more sustainable management practices over time, and places where vulnerability to ES changes seems to persist. Highlights • Ecosystem service benefits are realized through supply and demand dynamics. • We develop methods to disaggregate supply and demand to a local "settlement" level. • We temporally analyze the provisioning of water among 3873 settlements. • Local clusters of settlements emerge as stable, questionable, or vulnerable. • Changes in status over time provides policy insight into supply and demand dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The JYNNR – a Ramsar Site, Biosphere Reserve and important wintering ground for 15–18% of the world's Red Crowned Cranes – faces major pressure from regional development. This paper uses choice experiments to assess farmer preferences for an “eco-compensation” program targeting pesticide use by rural communities in and near the Jiangsu-Yancheng Coastal Wetlands Rare Birds National Nature Reserve (JYNNR). “Eco-compensation” is a China-specific term encompassing many incentive-based environmental management approaches. To identify options to reconcile rural welfare improvement with conservation, data was collected from 311 rural households in and near the JYNNR assessing perceptions of the JYNNR, wetland birds, use and impact of pesticides, and preferences for contracts to mitigate pesticide impacts. Results suggest that conflict with the JYNNR is growing, and that pesticide management could be an effective entry-point for engagement. The analysis finds several options for cost-effective contracts: granting rights to leave the program without penalty and increasing share of household land enrolled significantly reduce willingness-to-accept-payment (WTA), while longer contracts and larger reductions in pesticide use increase WTA, which interact meaningfully with farmer characteristics. Providing communities with training and technical support on proper pesticide use could, under specific contract structures, be sufficient to induce 100% enrollment without subsidies. Graphical Abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • Choice experiments are found to be effective for engaging rural communities. • Farmer preferences for reduced pesticide use near coastal wetlands are assessed. • Policy simulations identify several low-cost agri-environmental contract options. • Households prefer shorter contracts, more land enrolled and the ability to opt out. • Preferences for pesticide use reductions vary across household types in the sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has experimented with a wide range of policies to encourage firms to improve their environmental performance, often with mixed results. This paper investigates the effectiveness of combining two different policies at the same time: (1) a more centralised environmental inspection process and (2) new rules on the public disclosure of policy compliance for firms wanting to undertake an initial public offering (IPO). A theoretical framework predicts that a more centralised inspection and public disclosure should improve both a firm's environmental performance and profitability. The results of instrumental variable estimations for 536 listed Chinese firms for the period 2009 to 2019 confirm the theoretical predictions although the positive effect on profitability only lasts for two years after compliance with the IPO requirements. An investigation into possible mechanisms shows that the joint policy promotes investment in green projects while also increasing demand for the firm's products. The findings highlight greater regulatory complexity may be needed if a country wishes to change the behaviour of firms in a manner that is consistent with overcoming environmental challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Agenda 2030 poses critical elements regarding the transition towards a more sustainable development. This paper aims at exploring and comparing the path of sustainable development within the United States and China at the subnational level. An index of Integrated Sustainable Development is introduced to measure local sustainable development on an internationally-comparable scale. This Index is computed both at the national and subnational level and the resulting scores are compared within and across the two countries, also through the adoption of convergence and cluster analysis, allowing to answer four questions: Are the US and China moving towards a sustainable development agenda? Are the current achievements uniformly distributed within the two countries? Are states/provinces converging towards a more uniform level of sustainable development? Do the existing differences and analogies between states and provinces give rise to common clusters across the two countries? The results lead to one robust conclusion: while the US can claim a better result in the national and subnational rankings of sustainable development, China exhibits a more balanced achievement in terms of synergies across Goals and spatial distribution. Nonetheless, both countries are characterized by subnational disparities and scarce achievements of Planet-related Goals. Policy recommendations are discussed accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Porter hypothesis asserts that well-designed regulations can foster innovation for a "win-win" solution, but it requires environmental regulations to be strict but flexible, which is impractical for most developing countries. This paper explores how environmental regulations in a developing country can spur corporate innovation. Using the geographic distribution of wars during 1644 and 1911 as an instrument, we document that the stringency of environmental regulations in China promotes corporate innovation only when interacted with a region with high corruption. We further identify that the causal effect of the stringency on corporate innovation is mediated by bribery expenditures statistically and economically, and all the corresponding direct effects are insignificant. Ultimately, this paper confirms that corruption is the key mechanism in the Porter effect in a developing country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the monetary value of cutting PM2.5, a dominant source of air pollution in China. By matching hedonic happiness in a nationally representative survey with daily air quality data according to the dates and counties of interviews in China, we are able to estimate the relationship between local concentration of particulate matter and individual happiness. By holding happiness constant, we calculate the tradeoff between the reduction in particulate matter and income, essentially a happiness-based measure of willingness-to-pay for mitigating air pollution. We find that people on average are willing to pay ¥258 ($42, or 1.8% of annual household per capita income) per year per person for a 1% reduction in PM2.5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper links theoretical perspectives from energy efficiency economics with those observed from corporate environmental strategy to develop a framework for explaining energy efficiency strategies by firms in response to national policies and local regulations in China. The framework is refined through analytic generalization of 20 cases from four industries and four cities in Jiangsu Province, and reveals two strategies: 1) firms with moderate institutional pressure seek incremental competitiveness by adopting energy-saving technologies, which is reinforced by their informational, organizational, and financing capabilities, and facilitated by voluntary policies and industrial competition; 2) firms with survival risk or development constraints under regulation seek a position favored by local governments by replacing old plant and equipment with larger, more efficient ones and contributing to the local community. The Chinese case studies reveal a strong institutional impact on firms' choice of business strategies and particularly the positioning strategy. The identified business strategies shed additional light on the effectiveness and implications of different policy instruments for energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to examine if the “strong” version of Porter Hypothesis is supported in China by investigating how different regulatory instruments and the relative stringency impact “green” productivity. We use a slacks-based measure (SBM) and Luenberger Productivity Index, accounting for undesirable outputs, to evaluate the industrial “green” productivity growth rates of China's 30 provinces. The estimates imply an unsustainable development model in China with significant regional differences. By employing a panel threshold model and a province-level panel dataset during 2000–2012, empirical results show that both command-and-control and market-based regulation have a non-linear relationship with and can be positively related to “green” productivity but with different constrains on regulation stringency: there are double thresholds with the command-and-control and exists an optimal range of stringency for productivity improvement; while a single threshold has been found with the market-based regulation and its current stringency is reasonable for most of provinces. Moreover, based on China's reality, the productivity effect driven by market-based regulation is much stronger than that of the command-and-control. The mechanism of informal regulation is much more complicated. Consequently, we find evidence to support the “strong” Porter Hypothesis that reasonable stringency of environmental regulations may enhance rather than lower industrial competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the motivational crowding effects of a traditional monetary incentive – fines – and a relatively new nonmonetary incentive – a public revelation mechanism – on the conservation of common pool resources. Previous literature largely examines the crowding effects of instruments that include both moral suasion and monetary incentives. This paper examines the crowding effects of these incentives beyond moral suasion. We achieve these purposes by implementing a lab experiment in China. We find that, contrary to much of the previous literature, monetary incentives in the form of high penalties crowd in intrinsic motivation. This effect is primarily observed in individuals with the lowest initial extraction levels. Finally, we find that the public revelation mechanism crowds out intrinsic motivation; this crowd-out effect falls primarily on a specific sub-population, conditional cooperators. The debriefings suggest one possible reason for the crowd-out effects: While the public revelation mechanism pressures subjects to not over-harvest, it also reveals others' extractions, which happens to be higher than expected. This crowds out the conservation effort of conditional cooperators. This informational function of the public revelation mechanism is generally overlooked in previous literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coordinated economic and environmental development is a current goal in China. Many nature reserves have been established across China for the purpose of ecological civilization and protection of species diversity. In this study, the response of local resident income to nature reserve establishment is investigated qualitatively and quantitatively at the county scale in combination with socioeconomic datasets and the features of nature reserves during 2000–2017 based on the multi-period difference-in-difference model. In general, establishing nature reserves increased the income of local residents by approximately 1.3%. However, significant spatial heterogeneities are captured in China. Positive effects of nature reserves on local resident income were found in western and northeastern China, with enhancements of 3% and 3.8%, respectively. Negative effects were observed in other regions, with decrements of 3.3% and 1.1% across central and eastern China, respectively. Moreover, this study divided nature reserves into national and local nature reserves. Upgrading local nature reserves to national nature reserves increased the income of local residents by 4.0%, and establishing local-level nature reserves increased the income of local residents by approximately 1.1%. This paper provides evidence of the impacts of nature reserves on local poverty alleviation in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solid waste can cause serious environmental and ecological damage. However, the capital market attitude towards solid waste treatment policies remains unclear. Using an event study method, this paper examined the stock price reactions in Chinese listed firms in pilot construction and demolition waste (C&DW) treatment cities after the policy implementation and found that the pilot city firm stock prices were significantly and negatively affected, with this response being more negative when the firm had not previously been under environmental policy supervision. The cross-sectional analyses indicated that pilot city C&DW stock and treatment capacities, the proportion of state-owned shares, and the firms' political connections all negatively affected market reactions. The study of the capital market signaling effects towards solid waste policies can provide timely assistance to firms that need to adjust their strategic deployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations are facing various evolving pressures to green their practices. These pressures range from obligatory forces to voluntary measures. Environmental pressures traditionally influenced organizations to seek reactive and internal practices. The adopted environmental management (EM) practices have evolved to be more proactive and external as the focus has shifted to supply chains. This paper aims to further understand the driving mechanisms for EM practices under various external pressures. To meet this research goal, this study extends the theory of dynamic incentives of environmental policies and institutional theory to develop environmental pressures. Using an empirical study of 422 Chinese manufacturers covering all 31 provinces and provincial cities, an exploratory factor analysis reveals four EM practices factors and four pressures (drivers) factors. Results of a hierarchical regression analysis show that coercive pressures positively relate to more reactive, internal EM practices. Less coercive pressures positively relate to more proactive, external, and green supply chain management practices. The empirical findings provide further support that voluntary regulatory measures can help motivate companies in extending their EM efforts to supply chains. The work also provides insights into how organizations may respond to evolving regulatory regimes, dynamic incentives of environmental regulatory policy, and various institutional pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the extent and the determinants of global climate change beliefs. In contrast to former studies for the U.S. and other western countries, we focus on China due to its crucial role in international climate policy in conjunction with its vulnerability to global warming. The empirical analysis is based on unique data from a survey among more than 1000 adults in five Chinese cities. In line with former studies, our results reveal that the vast majority of almost 90% of the Chinese respondents believes in the existence of global warming. This seems to be a convenient and necessary basis for the support of costly public adaptation activities in China. Our econometric analysis reveals that already perceived experiences with extreme weather events (and particularly heatwaves) alone are strongly correlated with climate change beliefs and that physical or financial damages due to these events lead to even stronger relationships. Our estimation results additionally suggest females as well as people with a lower education, in medium ages, with higher household incomes, and from Chengdu or Shenyang to be more skeptical toward the existence of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using survey data from Inner Mongolia, this paper explores the role of stakeholder engagement in the implementation of the Sloping Land Conversion Programme, a payments for environmental services (PES) programme designed to restore forest in degraded land. Based on the idea that volunteerism and satisfaction with the programme's outcome are two important components of the programme's viability, we successively analyse the intensity of households' participation in the programme and their reported satisfaction with its economic achievement, which we relate to their stated volunteerism. We show that households' participation intensity in the SLCP is primarily driven by land and location characteristics, and that these findings hold true whether or not the households voluntarily enrolled in the programme. Moreover, as far as participants' satisfaction can be interpreted as an indicator of potential long-term support for the programme, our findings also support plausible sustainability for the programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unilateral tightening of environmental regulation is often considered to cause regulated industries to locate at places with lower compliance cost. The pollution haven effect may be offset, however, when endogenous technical change and factor reallocation can compensate increased compliance cost. This paper identifies the overall effects on industrial activities from provincially differentiated regulation of energy saving in China. Econometric specifications take into account the workings of different policy instruments, quantity and revenue-based measurement of output, policy-induced price effects, and alternative measurement of productivity and competitiveness. Results indicate that an introduction of energy-saving policies leads to loss of output and productivity in energy-intensive industries initially, which is passed on to other industries via markets of capital and energy-intensive goods. Under higher regulation, energy-intensive industries become more capital-intensive, regain productivity more quickly, and increase export rates; other industries become more labor-intensive, recover more slowly, and decrease export rates. Through capital investment and factor reallocation, China's policy has been effective in improving industrial energy efficiency without causing competitive loss or carbon leakage. An incentive-based instrument of differential electricity prices leads to similar effects on industries, implying the possibility for more efficient policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we construct a theoretical model considering that wage distortion is exogenous and endogenous, respectively, to explore the effect of wage distortion on green technological progress. Furthermore, using the panel data of China's industrial sector, we investigate the direct influence and mediating effect of wage distortion on green technological progress. We find that the green technological progress of China's industrial sector continued to rise from 2002 to 2012. However, the green technological progress of China's manufacturing sub-sectors is relatively slow. The wage distortion phenomenon that the labor's real wage level is less than the labor's marginal product level is widespread, especially in manufacturing sub-sectors. Moreover, green technological progress has a path-dependence characteristic. Wage distortion plays an important role in the changes in the direction of green technological progress. Green technological progress is more likely to appear in the sub-sectors which experience low wage distortion degree, while the sub-sectors with severe wage distortion experience a lower green technological progress rate. Wage distortion increases industrial profit margins by deliberately suppressing the rise of wages. In addition, increased industrial profit margins reduce the incentives of the green technological innovation of equipment suppliers and inhibit the improvement in green production technology. Therefore, alleviating wage distortion can benefit the green development of industrial sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unanticipated environmental shocks impact the livelihoods of many resource users around the world. These shocks are likely to be more unpredictable as the effects of climate change continue to mount. Yet how households adapt to these changing climatic conditions especially in the context of rapidly changing market conditions in most areas of the world, is poorly understood. These interactions have wide implications for both smallholder livelihoods and sustainable use of natural resources. In this paper, we examine the relationship between environmental shocks and stocking rates in livestock herds in the Inner Mongolian grasslands of northern China. We uniquely examine three types of shocks and how households adapt livestock production strategies in response to each. Separately and in aggregate, we look at three common shocks in Inner Mongolia: droughts, snowstorms, and locust outbreaks. We use a difference-in-differences approach to estimate changes in stocking rates among households that experience shocks versus those that do not with a panel dataset from 2009 to 2014 of 597 households. While we find no clear impact from locusts, our results suggest droughts and snowstorms have opposite effects: droughts are associated with increases in herd sizes, but snowstorms result in decreased herds. We suggest these differences are due to interactions between shocks, emerging options to borrow on credit, and livestock markets. Household adaptation to climate change will be strategic and take advantage of both available resources as well as market conditions. • Climate change is causing stronger and more unpredictable environmental shocks. • We use a difference-in-differences model to estimate the impact of shocks on stocking rate. • Drought relates to bigger herds; snowstorms relate to smaller herds. • Households adapt to shocks taking advantage of both available resources and market conditions. • Shaping well-functioning market may reduce opportunistic resource exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Novel method (TRACAST) maps corporate supply chains and identifies hotspots. • Enables researchers to systematically study individual companies rather than sectors. • Case study links US stores (e.g. Walmart) to Russian loggers via Chinese producers. • These US retailers likely source wood from endangered Russian forests. Globalization processes lead to supply chains that sprawl across space and time. Where and how products are produced and consumed shape the environmental and social conditions of regions, far and wide. Distance, fluidity, and complexity in supply chains mask their uneven impacts. Researchers have prioritized the study of 'sectors' (e.g. automobile manufacturing, garment production) over specific corporations (e.g. Toyota, Nike), even though these corporations 'move and shape' the global economy. Research by NGOs reveals the importance of focusing on individual corporations to highlight unsustainable production practices and to foster transparency and accountability. This paper introduces a methodological framework, "TRAcking Corporations Across Space and Time" (TRACAST), to tell the 'story' behind a product by systematically linking companies across a supply chain and identifying environmental and social hotspots and key nodes of governance. TRACAST combines in-situ (e.g. interviews, surveys, fieldwork) and ex-situ (e.g. document analysis, mining of trade data) approaches. To illustrate its utility, we link Walmart, Lowe's, and The Home Depot in the United States to Russian logging companies via Chinese flooring manufacturers. TRACAST enables scholars studying the global flows of goods to engage deeply with questions related to specific corporations and how they affect people and the planet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]