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Does national air quality monitoring reduce local air pollution? The case of PM 2.5 for China.
- Source :
-
Journal of environmental management [J Environ Manage] 2021 Oct 15; Vol. 296, pp. 113232. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Jul 09. - Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- Fine particulate matter (PM <subscript>2.5</subscript> ) has become a major pressing challenge for China and remains a concern of its central government. This paper draws on a natural experiment generated by the National Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Network (NAAQMN) program in China to explore whether national air quality monitoring reduces local air pollution. In this study, we use a city-level dataset for 4200 Chinese cities covering 2001-2015 and a difference-in-differences (DID) assessment design to assess the impact of the NAAQMN program on local PM <subscript>2.5</subscript> emissions in China. The results suggest that the NAAQMN program significantly reduces the local PM <subscript>2.5</subscript> concentrations by 1.325 mg/m <superscript>3</superscript> , and each additional NAAQMN program will cause a decrease of 0.154 mg/m <superscript>3</superscript> in the local PM <subscript>2.5</subscript> concentrations. Furthermore, we determine the heterogeneous impacts of the NAAQMN program on local PM <subscript>2.5</subscript> emission levels through the local government leaders' characteristics, PM <subscript>2.5</subscript> emission levels, and economic development levels. In addition, a mediation effect is found between the NAAQMN program and local PM <subscript>2.5</subscript> emissions through the efficiency of environmental governance. The Chinese government should continue to promote the implementation of the NAAQMN program by promoting the NAAQMN program to the county and rural areas as well as adding the sites of the NAAQMN program in the existing cities. Also, during the process of promoting the NAAQMN program, sufficient differentiation in policies should be developed for different cities.<br /> (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1095-8630
- Volume :
- 296
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Journal of environmental management
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 34246901
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113232