关键词:

事权下放, 环境污染, 政府治理

Abstract:

The division of responsibilities is the main contradiction in the current reform of China’s sub-provincial fiscal system and the key to improving the effectiveness of local government governance. However, the relationship between the division of responsibilities and environmental governance has not been clarified yet. In this paper, we study the effect of “empowerment and strengthening of counties” reform on environmental pollution. Based on county-level panel data from 2000 to 2010 and the DID method，we find that the increase in local management responsibilities exacerbates environmental pollution: industrial emissions in the reformed counties increased by 2.612 billion standard cubic meters, which is 33.86% of the sample average. In terms of the mechanism, we find that the reform mainly affects environmental pollution in the jurisdictions through two aspects: intensifying environmental pollution generation and hindering the governance of environmental pollution.

Key words:

division of government responsibilities, environmental pollution, government governance