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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Policy and Governance
Volume 13 - 2025 |
doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1455563
Evaluation of the Impact of the Ecological Environment Damage Compensation System on Enterprise Pollutant Emissions
Provisionally accepted
Zhaoyang Li *
Yisong Li - Hohai University, Nanjing, China
The development of an environmental damage compensation framework is a critical innovation in ecological civilization reforms. This study considers the pilot policy for environmental damage compensation reform as a quasi-natural experiment, employing a difference-in-differences approach with emission data from listed companies between 2008 and 2017. The research evaluates the environmental impact of the compensation system's implementation in pilot areas and its implications for improving environmental legal practices. The results show that the compensation system significantly reduces corporate pollution emissions by 1.93% (p<0.01), demonstrating its effectiveness as an environmental governance tool. The heterogeneity analysis reveals stronger effects in heavily polluting industries (3.30%, p<0.01) compared to non-heavily polluting industries (1.25%, p<0.1), in state-owned enterprises (2.06%, p<0.01) versus non-state-owned enterprises (1.71%, p<0.1), and in developed regions (2.50%, p<0.01) compared to underdeveloped areas (1.00%, not significant). The dual mechanisms of negotiation and litigation in the compensation system impose strict constraints on corporate environmental behavior, effectively addressing the issue of "corporate pollution, public suffering, and government expenses." To optimize the system, targeted policy recommendations include strengthening negotiation mechanisms, refining judicial responsibilities, and enhancing coordination in underdeveloped regions. These findings highlight the originality and importance of the compensation framework as a model for balancing ecological protection and economic development.
Keywords: ecological environment damage compensation, environmental governance, pilot policy, DID (difference-in-difference) model, China
Received: 27 Jun 2024; Accepted: 23 Jan 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Zhaoyang Li, Hohai University, Nanjing, China
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