Highway tolls and haze pollution: empirical evidence from 276 cities in China.

While the cancellation of highway tolls can reduce costs and increase efficiency in the transportation industry, it also triggers environmental problems. Using panel data on 276 cities in China from 2005 to 2019, we explore the urban haze pollution and its mechanism caused by cancellation of high-grade highway tolls with a combination of propensity score matching and time-varying difference in differences, and also apply a spatial Durbin model to test the haze pollution spatial spillover effect. The study shows that the cancellation of high-grade highway tolls significantly aggravates haze pollution in cities. Regional heterogeneity analysis indicates that the policy has a greater impact on eastern cities and raises haze pollutions in resource-based cities more than in non-resource-based cities. Further mechanism tests show that the policy exacerbates urban haze pollution through the detour effect and pollution spatial spillover effect. The findings of this paper enrich the literature on the environmental impacts of highway toll behavior and provide experiences for the formulation and implementation of highway toll policies in China's transportation sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]