| All along,with the rapid economic development,the water environment in China has been facing serious pollution.The water pollution problem has brought great harm to China’s society and economy,with about 190 million people got sick,and 60,000 people have died from diseases every year,seriously affecting the health of the public and the quality development of the economy.In order to solve the increasingly serious water pollution problem,the central government has accordingly introduced a series of strong environmental protection policies.However,although the willingness of the central government to govern the environment is strong,the local officials are more inclined to sacrifice environmental quality in exchange for economic development owing to the drive for promotion.Therefore,there is a conflict of interest between the central government and local governments,in environmental governance targets,which leads to a growing phenomenon of weak implementation and lax regulation by local governments in environmental management.How to strengthen the central government’s supervision of the local government’s environmental policy implementation has become a key role in China’s environmental governance work.Therefore,the Chinese central government has initiated a central environmental protection inspection（CEPI）policy to check the implementation situation of local governments’ environmental protection policies and solve outstanding ecological and environmental problems,to improve ecological and environmental quality and promote high-quality development.So,under the new pattern of vigorously promoting the construction of ecological civilization and green development,can CEPI achieve a win-win situation of environmental protection and green economic growth?To clarify this issue,based on the panel data of Chinese cities from 2009-2018 and manually collected CEPI data,this thesis takes the CEPI policy as a quasi-natural experiment to assess the dual effects of CEPI on water pollution management and green economic growth in China using the difference-in-differences（DID）method.Specifically,this thesis first uses the DID model to estimate the average and dynamic treatment effects of CEPI on water pollution,employs multiple methods to test the robustness of the results,explores the behind mechanism of CEPI on water pollution,conducts a heterogeneity analysis,and further also estimates the benefits brought by CEPI improve water quality;then also uses the DID model to estimate the average and dynamic treatment effects of CEPI on green economic growth,and conducts robustness tests,mechanism analysis,along with heterogeneity analysis.The research conclusions of this thesis are as follows.First,CEPI can reduce untreated wastewater discharges by 20.7%,and this effect can be sustained.A series of robustness tests confirm this finding.Mechanism analysis shows that CEPI control water pollution mainly through three mechanisms of action: deterrent effect on local officials,penalty effect on polluting enterprises,and mobilization effect on the public.Further heterogeneity analysis finds that compared with developed cities and cities with high public complaints levels,the effect of CEPI on water pollution is greater in underdeveloped cities and cities with low public complaints levels.In addition,this thesis estimates the benefits of CEPI in improving water quality and finds that CEPI can reduce infant and digestive cancer mortality and morbidity by reducing water pollution,resulting in health benefits of about RMB78.8 billion.Second,CEPI can increase green economic growth by 14.6%,and this effect persists in the years after CEPI implementation.A series of robustness tests confirm the reliability of the study results.Mechanism analysis shows that CEPI can promotes green economic growth through promoting green innovation and optimizing industrial structure.Further heterogeneity analysis reveals that compared with midwestern region and developed cities,the effect of CEPI on green economic growth is greater in eastern region and underdeveloped cities.Based on the above findings,this thesis proposes the following recommendations:（1）Continuing to promote the normalization of the central environmental protection inspection system and building a long-term mechanism for the central environmental protection inspection system.（2）The government should strengthen citizens’ awareness of environmental protection,open a multi-channel reporting platform,and improve the bottom-up environmental supervision system.（3）Adopting a differentiated approach to inspection and establishing a central environmental protection inspection system tailored to local conditions. |
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