Study on the Influence of Environmental Regulation on Haze

Yuanxin Du, Han Li

School of Business, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210000, China

Abstract: At present, haze is China's most serious environmental problems, Environmental regulation is a major means of environmental pollution control. This paper uses spatial econometric methods to explore the relationship between environmental regulation and haze using data from 281 prefecture-level cities in China from 2008 to 2015. Precipitation is used as an Instrumental variable for environmental regulation to control endogeneity. The results show that haze presents spatial negative correlation and haze is significantly reduced as the level of environmental regulation increases. Further, environmental regulation affects haze through in-come effect, competitive effect and technological progress effect. To control haze and promote sustainable economic development, joint governance between regions is imperative. Strictly enforced environmental reg-ulation is the key to achieving a "win-win" situation for environmental protection and economic growth.

Keywords: Environmental regulation; Haze; Spatial econometrics