Well-designed environmental regulation and firm performance: Swedish evidence on the Porter hypothesis and the effect of regulatory time strategies

Using recent data on a cross-section of Swedish chemical and pulp and paper firms, this paper provides novel empirical insights into the Porter hypothesis. Well-designed environmental regulation can stimulate firms’ innovative capabilities, while at the same time generating innovation offsets that may both offset net compliance costs and yield a competitive edge over those firms that are not affected by such regulations. In doing so, we also test the alleged effectiveness of regulatory time strategies in stimulating innovation activities of regulated firms. We find evidence for the effectiveness of such well-designed regulations: announced rather than existing regulation induces innovation and some innovation offsets. Our results imply that empirical tests of the Porter hypothesis that do not account for its dynamic nature, and that do not measure well-designed regulations, might provide misleading conclusions as to its validity.     

Modelling the potential impacts of land use/cover change on terrestrial carbon stocks in north-west Morocco

Terrestrial ecosystems store more carbon (C) than the atmosphere and provide ecosystem services (ES) such as global climate regulation, by sequestering carbon within biomass and soil. Land use land cover (LULC) change is considered a key factor, playing an important role in the dynamic variations of carbon storage. The aim of this paper is to assess the effects that LULC has had on carbon stocks and consequently on climate change regulation in north-western Morocco over 21 years. To achieve this aim, the Integrated Valuation of ES and Trade-offs (InVEST) model is used to assess status and variation in the net amount of carbon stored by the different types of LULC, and the economic value of the carbon sequestered in the remaining stock. The results show that the total carbon stock increased from 4.81TgC in 1996 to 4.98TgC in 2017. Over the 21 years, the LULC changes had the greatest effect on carbon storage - an increase of 6.87% with 0.17TgC of carbon sequestered, since the majority of unused land was changed to forest and cultivated land. Based on the global costs of atmospheric carbon, we estimate the economic value of carbon storage services to be between US$1,800,000 and US$3,570,000 for the whole period, with an average yearly increment of between US$86,000 and US$170,000. The results show that the ecosystem management has had a substantial climate mitigation effect. Also, the possibility of paying for ES could inform policy on the adoption of LULC to support livelihood and management choices.     

Environmental regulation and firms’ performance: a quasi-natural experiment from China

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates whether environmental regulation affects firm’s performance including productivity, wage and employment using firm-level data in 1996–2007. The identification uses Two Control Zones (TCZ) policy implemented by the Chinese government in 1998, in which tougher environmental regulations were imposed in TCZ cities but not others. By difference-in-differences estimation, we find that tougher environmental regulation leads to larger increase on both total factor productivity and wage, and firms tend to employ fewer workers under pressure of environmental protection. Heterogeneous tests show that the impacts are better for non-pollution intensive firms, non-exporters and SOEs. Finally, we find that R&D input and exiting firms among industry are the driving forces for enhancing TFP and increasing wage and unemployment.     

Questioning the local: environmental regulation,shale gas extraction,and the politics of scale

ABSTRACT

The exploration and potential extraction of shale gas – better known as fracking – has emerged as one of the most contentious dimensions to local environmental politics in the UK. Local residents and environmental activists have raised concerns about health, noise, ground water contamination, seismicity, environmental amenity, and other impacts of the industry on communities. Despite the complexities of shale gas extraction, an emphasis on the local has shaped key dimensions of the debate around the appropriate location for well pads to the relative exclusion of other issues. This paper draws on fieldwork in Lancashire, UK, to reflect on the political construction of scale in order to explore how an emphasis on “the local” can restrict political debate over shale gas to narrow concerns with land-use planning thereby obviating a fuller engagement with wider questions concerning risk, energy policy, and climate change. It is concluded that a more nuanced conception of scale is necessary for understanding how concerns with shale gas are diminished rather than strengthened through the current planning policy and regulatory regime operating in the UK.     

碳交易政策下的物流与制造业联动减排随机演化博弈

考虑外部环境的不确定性,构建由地方政府、制造商与物流企业构建的三方随机演化模型,对模型的稳定性进行讨论得到稳态条件,结合数值仿真方法对博弈主体策略演化进行研究.结果表明：规制成本与上级政府的倒查机制是影响地方政府策略选择的重要因素,较高的碳交易价格将促进博弈系统向（积极规制,绿色生产,绿色运输）理想策略集演化,理想策略集下初始策略选择概率的改变一定程度上影响了主体演化的速率,即便制造商在博弈初期的绿色生产策略选择概率为0.1,仍能以最快的演化速率向绿色生产稳定策略收敛.联动发展下制造商的绿色生产策略将带动物流企业选择绿色运输策略,物流企业对碳交易价格与碳配额的敏感性要大于制造商,物流企业向绿色运输演化速率与碳配额成负相关,与碳交易价格成正相关.碳交易财政收入的增加促进了地方政府的积极规制行为,但当财政收入系数增加至0.3时可能导致物流企业的策略选择不稳定.伴随着随机干扰强度的升高,制造商保持了最高的稳定性,在情形一、二中的波动幅度分别为0.4667~1与0.5618~1,而物流企业的策略选择波动性最强,在情形一、二中得波动幅度分别为0.3856~1与0.4616~1,且在演化初期长期处在不稳定状态.     

环境规制、经济高质量发展与生态资本利用的空间关系——以北部湾经济区为例

生态资本利用的空间关系影响区域可持续发展。以北部湾经济区2006—2019年面板数据为例,构建空间杜宾模型研究环境规制、经济高质量发展与生态资本利用的空间关系,结论如下：（1）环境规制、经济高质量发展和生态资本构成三E系统。（2）生态资本利用存在显著空间正自相关关系。（3）生态资本供需、流量利用及存量占用与环境规制显著空间正相关,环境规制抑制了存量占用及资本供需和流量利用水平;与经济高质量发展显著空间正相关,经济高质量发展显著提高了资本供给需求与流量利用,也增大了存量占用。（4）交互效应显著抑制了两者对资本供需与流量利用的影响、抑制了环境规制对存量占用的影响,也促进了经济高质量发展对存量占用的影响。研究结论对区域生态资本管控有实际意义。     

高海拔矿井掘进工作面局部增压的空气幕调控仿真研究

矿井环境一直是制约矿井地下安全生产的重要因素之一,尤其是在高海拔地域,由于空气的各项参数都与海拔高度相关,高海拔地区矿井在通风方面要比平原矿井有更多特殊要求。为解决高海拔地区矿井掘进工作面存在的低压缺氧问题,在对高海拔地区低压环境特性分析及传统矿用空气幕理论分析的基础上,根据增能增阻设计提出了多功能矿用空气幕联合增压模型,该模型在巷道两端分别布置引射型和增阻型矿用空气幕,以达到增压进而间接提高工作场所含氧量的效果。以青海省某金矿3 850 m中段开拓巷道掘进作业面为背景,借助有限元仿真软件Fluent对构建的开拓巷道的三维立体模型进行数值模拟。模拟结果与现场实测结果基本相符,结果表明:采用基于空气幕的增压增氧调控技术可使开拓巷道掘进作业面绝对气压由63 835 Pa增加至68 273 Pa,氧分压从12 040 Pa提高至14 213 Pa,达到海拔3 000 m的水平,可明显改善通风效果和通风质量;同时,随掘进作业面压力提高,采空区有害气体的逸出也得到有效抑制。该调控方法可以克服传统风流调控设施存在的布置困难、影响通行的问题,为提高高海拔地区井下压力及含氧量提供了新的思路。     

基于系统动力学的安全生产监管有效性研究

为改善我国安全生产监管的效果,研究引入激励性监管措施后的安全生产监管效果。运用系统动力学(SD)建模方法,对比单用约束性监管措施的效果与综合运用约束性监管措施和激励性监管措施的效果。研究结果表明:单独使用约束性监管措施时,提高检查罚金和事故赔偿额,会使企业净收益、政府与企业的净收益总和增加。然而,综合使用约束性监管措施和激励性监管措施时,企业的净收益额增加,政府的净收益额减少,而企业与政府的净收益总额变化不大,但结合对事故负外部性的考虑,通常会使社会福利额外提高。     

Varieties of market-based policy: Instrument choice in climate policy

Since the 1970s, European and US regulators have used different varieties of market-based environmental policy, which are rooted in competing types of liberalism: price instruments and quantity instruments, respectively. In the case of climate change, however, the EU and the US have converged on hybrid policy mixes. This convergence in instrument choice is examined in two cases: the emergence of the EU Emission Trading Scheme, i.e. the import of quantity regulation to the EU; and the creation of California’s feed-in tariff, i.e. the import of price regulation to the US. Increasing convergence in instrument choice is the result of international diffusion through learning and shifting domestic coalitions. This demonstrates that the two varieties of market-based environmental policy increasingly blend, and how policy import is driven by domestic government–producer coalitions rather than by policy-maker ideas of ‘best practice.’