Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

The effects of environmental regulation on the industrial location of China’s manufacturing

  • Review Article
  • Published:
Natural Hazards Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Significant regional differences in Chinese environmental regulation stringency will affect regional location of China’s manufacturing. With reference to the classical trade model of interaction between industries and provinces and data from China’s manufacturing, we explore the impact of environmental regulations on the location of China’s manufacturing. The empirical results show that the environmental regulation has influence on the location of China’s manufacturing, and manufacturing tends to move to loosely regulated provinces from strictly regulated ones considering environmental regulation constraints. Provinces with easy environmental regulation efforts are more likely to attract polluting enterprises and become pollution haven.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ambec S, Cohen MA, Elgie S et al (2013) The porter hypothesis at 20: can environmental regulation enhance innovation and competitiveness? Rev Environ Econ Policy 7(1):2–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker RA, Shadbegian RJ, Pasurka C (2013) Do environmental regulations disproportionately affect small businesses? evidence from the pollution abatement costs and expenditures survey. J Environ Econ Manag 65(3):1–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Carraro C, Cian ED, Nicita L et al (2010) Environmental policy and technical change: a survey. Int Rev Environ Resour Econ 4(2):163–219

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chua S (1999) Economic growth, liberalization, and the environment: a review of the economic evidence. Annu Rev Energy Environ 24(1):391–430

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cole MA (2004) Trade, the pollution haven hypothesis and the environmental Kuznets curve: examining the linkages. Ecol Econ 48(1):71–81

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cole MA, Elliott RJR, Shimamoto K (2005) Industrial characteristics, environmental regulations and air pollution: an analysis of the UK manufacturing sector. J Environ Econ Manag 50(1):121–143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cole MA, Elliott RJR, Okubo T (2010) Trade, environmental regulations and industrial mobility: an industry-level study of Japan. Ecol Econ 69(10):1995–2002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dean JM, Lovely ME, Wang H (2009) Are foreign investors attracted to weak environmental regulations? evaluating the evidence from China. J Dev Econ 90(1):1–13

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Denison EF (1979) Accounting for slower economic growth: the United States in the 1970’s. Brookings Institution Press, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  • Duffy-Deno KT (1992) Pollution abatement expenditures and regional manufacturing activity. J Reg Sci 32(4):419–436

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ederington J, Minier J (2003) Is environmental policy a secondary trade barrier? an empirical analysis. Can J Econ 36(1):137–154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eskeland GA, Harrison AE (2003) Moving to greener pastures? multinationals and the pollution haven hypothesis. J Dev Econ 70(1):1–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fu JY, Li LS (2010) An empirical study on environmental regulation, factor endowment and international competitiveness of industry. Manag World 10(87–98):187 (In Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Fullerton D, Kim SR (2008) Environmental investment and policy with distortionary taxes, and endogenous growth. J Environ Econ Manag 56(2):141–154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenstone M (2002) The impacts of environmental regulations on industrial activity: evidence from the 1970 and 1977 clean air act amendments and the census of manufactures. J Polit Econ 110(6):1175–1219

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • He J (2006) Pollution haven hypothesis and environmental impacts of foreign direct investment: the case of industrial emission of sulfur dioxide (SO2) in Chinese provinces. Ecol Econ 60(9):228–245

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffmann R, Lee CG, Ramasamy B et al (2005) FDI and pollution: a granger causality test using panel data. J Int Dev 17(3):311–317

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jaffe AB, Peterson SR, Portney PR et al (1995) Environmental regulation and the competitiveness of US manufacturing: what does the evidence tell us? J Econ Lit 33(1):132–163

    Google Scholar 

  • Kheder SB, Zugravu N (2012) Environmental regulation and French firms location abroad: an economic geography model in an international comparative study. Ecol Econ 77:48–61

  • Leiter AM, Parolini A, Winner H (2011) Environmental regulation and investment: evidence from European industry data. Ecol Econ 70(4):759–770

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levinson A (1996) Environmental regulations and manufacturers’ location choices: evidence from the Census of Manufactures. J Public Econ 62(1–2):5–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levinson A (2009) Technology, international trade, and pollution from US manufacturing. Am Econ Rev 99(5):2177–2192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levinson A, Taylor MS (2008) Unmasking the pollution haven effect. Int Econ Rev 49(1):223–254

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • List J, Co C (2000) The effects of environmental regulations on foreign direct investment. J Environ Econ Manag 40(1):1–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maloney M, McCormick R (1982) A positive theory of environmental quality regulation. J Law Econ 25(1):99–123

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marconi D (2012) Environmental regulation and revealed comparative advantages in Europe is China a pollution haven? Rev Int Econ 20(3):616–635

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Midelfart-Knarvik KH, Overman HG, Redding SJ et al. (2000) The location of European industry. In: Economic papers 142, European Commission

  • Mulatu A, Gerlagh R, Rigby D et al (2010) Environmental regulation and industry location in Europe. Environ Resour Econ 45(4):459–479

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Overman H, Ulltveit-Moe KH, Venables A (2000) Comparative advantage and economic geography: estimating the location of production in the EU. (CEPR Discussion Papers No. 2618). London: Centre for Economic Policy Research

  • Walter I, Ugelow JL (1979) Environmental policies in developing countries. Ambio 8(2/3):102–109

    Google Scholar 

  • Wu Y, Sheng JC, Huang F (2015) China’s future investments in environmental protection andcontrol of manufacturing industry: lessons from developed countries. Nat Hazards 77(3):1889–1901

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yu CH, Cui WJ, Li LS (2015) Dose environmental regulation will affect China’s manufacturing export: a pollution haven hypothesis based on gravity model. Reform Econ Syst 2:115–119 (In Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Zeng DZ, Zhao LX (2009) Pollution havens and industrial agglomeration. J Environ Econ Manag 58(2):141–153

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No: 71173116), the National Bureau of Statistics of China (No: 2014ly046), the Social Science Foundation of Jiangsu, China (No: 2012JDXM012), the Innovation Project of Universities’ Philosophy and Social Science in Jiangsu, China (No: 2015ZSTD006) and the China Institute for Manufacture Developing, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, China (No: SK20140090-21).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tonghui Lian.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lian, T., Ma, T., Cao, J. et al. The effects of environmental regulation on the industrial location of China’s manufacturing. Nat Hazards 80, 1381–1403 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-015-2008-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-015-2008-z

Keywords

Navigation