会哭的孩子有奶吃吗？公民参与对中国环境治理的直接与间接影响

中文摘要

我们在中国开展了一项全国性田野实验，以评估企业违反污染标准时，将其分配至公开或私下的公民申诉渠道所产生的直接与间接影响。研究有三个主要发现。第一，通过社交媒体向监管部门提出的公开申诉，显著减少了违规行为和污染物排放，而私下申诉带来的环境改善较为有限。第二，公开申诉似乎使监管部门的关注重点从促进经济增长转向避免污染引发的公众不满。第三，基于在地级行政区层面随机改变处理企业比例的设计，处理企业的污染减排并未被控制企业所抵消。（JEL D22、L82、P28、P31、Q52、Q53、Q58）

Abstract

We conducted a nationwide field experiment in China to evaluate the direct and indirect impacts of assigning firms to public or private citizen appeals when they violate pollution standards. There are three main findings. First, public appeals to the regulator through social media substantially reduce violations and pollution emissions, while private appeals cause more modest environmental improvements. Second, public appeals appear to tilt regulators’ focus away from facilitating economic growth and toward avoiding pollution-induced public unrest. Third, pollution reductions by treated firms are not offset by control firms, based on randomly varying the proportion of treated firms at the prefecture level. (JEL D22, L82, P28, P31, Q52, Q53, Q58)