Effects of One-Sided Fiscal Decentralization on Environmental Efficiency of Chinese Provinces

China's actual fiscal decentralization is one-sided: while public expenditures are largely decentralized, fiscal revenues are recentralized after 1994. One critical consequence of the actual system is the creation of significant fiscal imbalances at sub-national level. This paper investigates empirically effects of fiscal imbalances on environmental performance of Chinese provinces. First, environmental efficiency scores of Chinese provinces are calculated with SFA for the period from 2005 to 2010. Then, these scores are regressed against two fiscal imbalance indicators in a second stage model. Finally, conditional EE scores are calculated. This paper finds that effects of fiscal imbalances on EE are nonlinear and conditional on economic development level. Fiscal imbalances are more detrimental to environment in less developed provinces. These results suggest that the one-sided fiscal decentralization in China may have regressive environmental effects and contribute to regional disparity in terms of sustainable development

Strategic Interactions in Environmental Regulation Enforcement: Evidence from Chinese Provinces

This paper studies whether Chinese provinces set strategically their environmental stringency when faced with interprovincial competition for mobile capital. Using Chinese provincial data and spatial panel econometric models, we find that Chinese provinces do engage in this kind of strategic interaction, particularly among those with similar industrial structure. Furthermore, we haven't found evidence of asymmetric responsiveness suggested by the race to the bottom theory. Finally, the one-sided fiscal decentralization is likely to strengthen the strategic behavior. These empirical results call for a skeptical attitude towards China's decentralization of environment policy implementation as well as its fiscal arrangements

Transboundary Pollution in China: A Study of Polluting Firms' Location Choices in Hebei Province

Transboundary pollution is a particularly serious problem as it leads people located at regional borders to disproportionately suffer from pollution. In China, where the environmental policy is decentralized and where environmental conflicts between provinces have occurred several times, transboundary pollution is likely to exist. However, until now, nearly all the studies focused on developed countries. In this paper, we study whether transboundary pollution problems exist in China. To do so, we estimate whether, within Hebei province, polluting firms are more likely to set up in border counties than in interior ones. To ensure the robustness of our results, several measures of the variable of interest are constructed from Geographic Information System (GIS) data. The estimations of a count-data model allow us to conclude that border counties are more attractive destinations for polluting firms than counties located within the province. Moreover, it appears that this effect has strengthened over time.Transboundary pollution, firm location choice, environmental regulations, China

Controllable coupling between a nanomechanical resonator and a coplanar-waveguide resonator via a superconducting flux qubit

We study a tripartite quantum system consisting of a coplanar-waveguide (CPW) resonator and a nanomechanical resonator (NAMR) connected by a flux qubit, where the flux qubit has a large detuning from both resonators. By a unitray transformation and a second-order approximation, we obtain a strong and controllable (i.e., magnetic-field-dependent) effective coupling between the NAMR and the CPW resonator. Due to the strong coupling, vacuum Rabi splitting can be observed from the voltage-fluctuation spectrum of the CPW resonator. We further study the properties of single photon transport as inferred from the reflectance or equivalently the transmittance. We show that the reflectance and the corresponding phase shift spectra both exhibit doublet of narrow spectral features due to vacuum Rabi splitting. By tuning the external magnetic field, the reflectance and the phase shift can be varied from 0 to 1 and $-\pi$ to $\pi$, respectively. The results indicate that this hybrid quantum system can act as a quantum router.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

KAMG: A Tool for Converting Blood Ties and Affinity Ties into Adjacency Matrices

Kinship Adjacency Matrix Generator (KAMG) is a browser-based software for creating adjacency matrices using the information of kinship ties. Specifically, it is capable of converting the family trees in the format of GEDCOM files into adjacency matrices of blood relationship. With the data of intermarriages between different families, it can further create the adjacency matrix of affinity relationship for the families. The outcomes can be directly used to create networks. KAMG is written in JavaScript and implemented on web browsers. It is completely open source and the source code is publicly available on GitHub

2-{4-[(Quinolin-8-yl­oxy)meth­yl]phen­yl}benzonitrile

In the title compound, C23H16N2O, the bond angle at the O atom that connects the benzene ring and the quinoline ring system is 116.0 (2)°. The quinoline ring system make a dihedral angle of 16.5 (2)° with the adjacent benzene ring. The dihedral angle between the biphenyl benzene rings is 70.8 (2)°

Effects of One-Sided Fiscal Decentralization on Environmental Efficiency of Chinese Provinces

China’s actual fiscal decentralization is one-sided: while public expenditures are largely decentralized, fiscal revenues are recentralized after 1994. One critical consequence of the actual system is the creation of significant fiscal imbalances at sub-national level. This paper investigates empirically effects of fiscal imbalances on environmental performance of Chinese provinces. First, environmental efficiency scores of Chinese provinces are calculated with SFA for the period from 2005 to 2010. Then, these scores are regressed against two fiscal imbalance indicators in a second stage model. Finally, conditional EE scores are calculated. This paper finds that effects of fiscal imbalances on EE are nonlinear and conditional on economic development level. Fiscal imbalances are more detrimental to environment in less developed provinces. These results suggest that the one-sided fiscal decentralization in China may have regressive environmental effects and contribute to regional disparity in terms of sustainable development.Chinese provinces, Decentralization; Environmental efficiency; SFA

Effects of One-Sided Fiscal Decentralization on Environmental Efficiency of Chinese Provinces

China's actual fiscal decentralization is one-sided: while public expenditures are largely decentralized, fiscal revenues are recentralized after 1994. One critical consequence of the actual system is the creation of significant fiscal imbalances at sub-national level. This paper investigates empirically effects of fiscal imbalances on environmental performance of Chinese provinces. First, environmental efficiency scores of Chinese provinces are calculated with SFA for the period from 2005 to 2010. Then, these scores are regressed against two fiscal imbalance indicators in a second stage model. Finally, conditional EE scores are calculated. This paper finds that effects of fiscal imbalances on EE are nonlinear and conditional on economic development level. Fiscal imbalances are more detrimental to environment in less developed provinces. These results suggest that the one-sided fiscal decentralization in China may have regressive environmental effects and contribute to regional disparity in terms of sustainable development.Chinese provinces;Decentralization; Environmental efficiency; SFA