ABSTRACT

AbstractThis article estimates the effect of environmental regulation on firm productivity using a spatial regression discontinuity design implicit in China's water quality monitoring system. Because water quality readings are important for political evaluations and the monitoring stations only capture emissions from their upstream regions, local government officials are incentivized to enforce tighter environmental standards on firms immediately upstream of a monitoring station, rather than those immediately downstream.

Significance

AbstractAs a key component of informal regulation, nongovernmental organization (NGO) monitoring reduces the cost of government oversight and increases the visibility of corporate performance to stakeholders, thereby promoting corporate compliance. We conduct a nationwide randomized controlled trial (RCT) to investigate the causal effect of NGO monitoring on corporate compliance as measured by the environmental information disclosure (EID) of China's highly polluting listed companies.

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.

Abstract

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) has dominated government and development partners’ boardrooms in the last two decades and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. Debate is ongoing as to whether governments allocate additional public funds to health care as a result of expanded tax revenues or whether public health financing (PHF) can be harnessed to spur growth in tax revenues. Evidence from prior studies has varied, mainly stemming from differences in models adopted, choice and measurement of variables, as well as contextual disparities.

ABSTRACTWe investigate the causal impact of the Kenya 2008 post‐election violence on rural farm households' welfare, including per capita income. We explore potential causal pathways through which post‐election violence might have affected household welfare, including crop income, livestock income and off‐farm income.

ABSTRACT

Abstract