Atmospheric environmental regulation and industrial total factor productivity: the mediating effect of capital intensity.

Balancing economic growth, resource conservation, and atmospheric environmental protection has topped the agenda of academics and policy makers. The article takes the panel data of 37 Chinese industrial sectors from 2003 to 2016 as the research object to explore the impact of atmospheric environmental regulation on industrial total factor productivity and the possible path of capital intensity. Furthermore, to analyze the possible industry heterogeneity of the above results, the article classifies the industrial sectors into heavy polluting industries and light polluting industries, based on their air pollution emission intensity. The key discoveries of this study are as follows: (1) Generally, the regulation of atmospheric environment has a significant inhibitory effect on industrial total factor productivity. However, if measured by industry group, atmospheric environmental regulation has a significant inhibitory effect on industrial total factor productivity in the light polluted industry group, while in the heavy polluted industry group, the impact is less significant. (2) Across all the industries and especially the light polluted industry group, the capital intensity is a partial intermediate variable of the influence of atmospheric environmental regulation on industrial total factor productivity, but the mediating effect is not significant in the heavy polluted industry group. Finally, policy suggestions are given from the following three aspects: promoting accurate industrial governance, selecting environmental regulation methods and improving supporting policies, which provide practical and feasible solutions for improving the current atmospheric environment governance and promoting the improvement of industrial total factor productivity.

Does emissions trading affect labor demand? Evidence from the mining and manufacturing industries in China.

We use "China's sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions trading program" as a quasi-natural experiment to identify the causal effect of this market-based environmental regulation on firm's labor demand. Based on the difference-in-differences (DID) method and a series of robustness tests, we observe robust evidence that the emissions trading program significantly increases the labor demand of regulated firms, and that this positive employment effect is driven by the expansion of firm's production scale. The observable evidence leads us to cautiously conclude that the market-based environmental regulations in even developing countries could achieve the double dividend of coexistence of environmental protection and employment growth.

Analysis of Current Status and Strategies of Retinopathy of Prematurity Screening during 6 Years in Local Regions of China: Implication and Caution.

Purpose. To understand the current status of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) screening in a province of North China. Methods. We retrospectively analyzed 5651 cases with ROP screening in the Provincial Screening Center of Hebei Province from January 2008 to December 2013. Results. 14.98% of all ROP patients and 1.56% of severe ROP patients required treatment. All the severe ROP patients met the criteria of screening. Severe ROP patients were detected at recommended initial screening time (4-6 weeks after birth). The frequency of other ocular diseases was 8.03%, in which the main disease was fundus hemorrhage. In 2665 more mature and unqualified infants, only 2 retinoblastoma and 2 familial exudative vitreoretinopathy were detected, which indicates the advantage of early diagnosis and treatment based on fundus examination. Conclusions. It is suggested that the standard of GA < 32 weeks and/or BW < 1800 g could be served as the screening criteria in the local region for ROP screening. 4 weeks after birth is the most appropriate time for initial screening.