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• Using the data of micro industrial enterprises and the quasi-natural experiment of the PNTR authorisation from the U.S. after China's accession to the WTO to investigate the impact of TPU decline on enterprise environmental performance. • Enterprises' SO2 emissions of enterprises in an industry with a large reduction in TPU after China obtained the PNTR authorisation from the U.S. will be reduced more than those of enterprises in an industry with less TPU reduction. • The decline in TPU helps reduce SO2 generation and strengthens enterprises' pollutants removal ability, thereby improving enterprises' front and terminal environmental performance. • The decline in TPU is conducive to improving enterprises' environmental performance under strong environmental regulation by local governments. Using the data of micro industrial enterprises and the quasi-natural experiment of the permanent normal trade relationship (PNTR) authorisation from the United States after China's accession to the World Trade Organization, this study investigates the impact of trade policy uncertainty (TPU) on enterprise environmental performance employing the difference-in-differences model. We found that the sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions of enterprises in an industry with a large reduction in TPU after China obtained the PNTR authorisation will be reduced more than those of enterprises in an industry with less TPU reduction. The decline in TPU helps reduce SO2 generation and strengthen enterprises' pollutants removal, thereby improving enterprises' front and terminal environment performance. Under strong environmental regulation by local governments, the decline in TPU is conducive to improving enterprises' environmental performance. The impact of TPU decline mainly exists in the enterprises of high pollution industries, non-state-owned and the eastern area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the increasingly serious problem of environmental pollution, environmental governance in various countries is constantly improving. To open the black box of environmental governance, this study assesses whether and how environmental target constraints affect pollution emissions from the perspective of firms' behavior. Based on the exogenous impact of including environmental performance in officials' evaluations, the continuous difference-in-differences (DID) method was used. Benchmark analysis showed that the environmental target constraint policy effectively reduced the SO 2 emissions of firms, especially polluting firms, and inhibited the emission of other air pollutants, exerting a collaborative governance effect on multiple pollutants. Expansion analysis showed that the environmental target constraint policy was beneficial for optimizing the energy structure and strengthening the pollution control of firms. However, the environmental target constraint policy did not effectively promote the green technology innovation of Chinese industrial firms. In addition, as a result of environmental target constraints, the distribution of the SO 2 emission intensity of firms in each region tended to be uniform through an asymmetric impact on the entry and exit behavior of firms with different pollution levels. This study presents an objective foundation for developing an effective pollution control policy framework for other countries, especially developing countries. [Display omitted] • The black box of environmental governance is opened based on firms' behavior. • Environmental policy optimizes energy input and strengthens end treatment. • Environmental policy has an asymmetric impact on different firms. • The continuous difference-in-differences method is used in the policy analysis. • An effective pollution control policy framework is developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applies the classical difference-in-difference (DID) and spatial difference-in-difference (SDID) approach to measure the policy effect of the mandatory environmental protection interview (EPI) on green innovation with focus on 11,567 industrial manufacturing enterprises in Yangtze River Delta (YRD), China. Overall, the mandatory EPI has significantly promoted green innovation in industrial manufacturing enterprises in YRD by 0.399 units, which is greater than its promotion in green innovation for national industrial enterprises. Industrial manufacturing enterprises tend to increase utility patents more than invention patents under the impact on EPI. A heterogeneity analysis shows that EPI plays a larger role in promoting green innovation for highly polluting enterprises and privately owned enterprises than low polluting enterprises and state-owned enterprises. The innovative application of SDID approach precisely identifies that mandatory EPI has negative and positive effect on green innovation for the interviewed and non-interviewed neighbouring YRD cities. The EPI has a deterrent effect on the non-interviewed cities and stimulates their self-reliance innovation behaviours to realizing green innovation promotion. Except for the highly polluting enterprises with lower government environmental subsidy (GES) tending to purse more GI under EPI, the overall adjustment effect of GES on EPI to have a policy effect is insignificant. • Classical and spatial difference-in-difference approaches are used to measure the effect of EPI on green innovation. • EPI has greater promotion role on green innovation of manufacturing enterprises in YRD than national industrial enterprises. • Industrial manufacturing enterprises tend to increase utility patents more than invention patents under the impact on EPI. • EPI has better stimulation effect on green innovation for highly polluting enterprises than low polluting enterprises. • EPI restricts green innovation in interviewed cities while promotes green innovation for non-interviewed neighbouring cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• China Industrial Economic and Pollutant Emission data (CIEPE) with 1.28 million individual enterprise data. • The reduction of pollutants loading at different stages has synergic effects. • The response between national development strategies implementation and pollutants loading reduction has a hysteresis effect. • Three risks in China's industrial pollution control should be paid more attention. China has made great efforts in industrial pollution control, but for the different industrial sectors under various development stages, it is not so clear whether there is synergistic effects among them, and how it changes with the environmental policies. This study filled this knowledge gap by comiling the China Industrial Economic and Pollutant Emission data (WatSim-CIEPE) using 1.28 million individual enterprise data. The results demonstrated a power function decreasing trend for the emission per unit output value. The load reduction at different stages had synergic effects, and coastal cities reached the inflection point earlier. There is a completely opposite pattern between pollutant emission and GIOV in spatial evolution, mainly because the chemical and metal sectors with high pollutant emissions and low GIOV migrated to western China. The year gap between the implementation of the national development strategy and the break-point of gravity center variation of GIOV indicates a hysteresis effect for the influence of development policies. There may be three risks in China's industrial pollution control: (a) NH pollution gets serious in the western regions; (b) the food sector may become a new dominant pollution source; (c) the imbalance between industrial development and pollution control may further aggravate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]