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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Can Joint Atmospheric Prevention and
Control Policy Reduce the Border Sulfur
Dioxide Pollution? Micro-Level Evidence
from Chinese Industrial Enterprises
1
School of Public Finance and Taxation, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, China, 430073
2
Institute of Population Research, Peking University, Beijing, China, 100871
3
School of Economics, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China, 610065
Submission date: 2024-08-24
Final revision date: 2024-11-11
Acceptance date: 2024-11-20
Online publication date: 2025-02-25
Publication date: 2026-01-30
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2026;35(1):839-851
KEYWORDS
border pollutionsulfur dioxide (SO2) emissionsjoint atmospheric prevention and control policyair pollution
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Border air pollution is a critical issue in environmental governance. Based on the data of Chinese
industrial enterprises from 2005 to 2014, this study takes China’s Joint Atmospheric Prevention and
Control Policy (JAPCP) as a policy shock and uses the difference-in-differences (DID) method to
explore the impact of inter-jurisdictional cooperation on border sulfur dioxide (SO2) pollution. Our
results reveal four notable findings. (1) After implementing the JAPCP, SO2 emissions of enterprises
located in JAPCP-covered border counties dropped by 23.6%, demonstrating the JAPCP’s success in
border SO2 pollution control. (2)The JAPCP alleviates the border SO2 pollution caused by externalities,
environmental administration decentralization, and political promotion incentives; however, it cannot
fundamentally solve the SO2 pollution caused by political promotion incentives. (3) The JAPCP has the
Porter effect of controlling pollution by driving enterprises’ innovation, and the emissions reduction
effect of the JAPCP is not attributable to enterprises’ strategic emissions reduction practices. (4) The
border governance effect of the JAPCP is more significant in areas with less fiscal pressure, such as the
Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region and non-key control areas. Our conclusions provide practical guidance for
promoting inter-jurisdictional cooperation to govern boundary externalities.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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| eISSN: | 2083-5906 |
| ISSN: | 1230-1485 |
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