Is collaborative governance effective for air pollution prevention? A case study on the Yangtze river delta region of China

Collaborative governance plays an important role in air pollution prevention (APP). This paper aims to evaluate the policy effects of collaborative governance for APP in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region, analyze the collaborative mechanism from the perspective of institutional collective action (ICA) theory, and discuss its implications for improving the policy effects and regional collaboration. First, the causal relationship between collaborative environmental governance and air pollutant reduction is confirmed using the regression discontinuity design (RDD). However, it is also established that regional APP policies initiated by the Regional Cooperation Office of Yangtze River Delta (RCOYRD) did not have a long-term effect on reducing air pollutants. Second, initiative heterogeneity and administrative hierarchy heterogeneity of policy effects between cities are analyzed. It demonstrates that the mechanism formulated by RCOYRD has very limited impact on the reduction of transaction costs and collaborative risks of collaborative environmental governance. Third, clear division of responsibilities, balanced cost-benefit sharing, and coordinated enforcement between local governments are needed to improve the policy effects of collaborative governance for APP.