LEADER 00000nam 2200337 4500
001 AAI9945027
005 20100824140712.5
008 100824s1999 ||||||||||||||||| ||eng d
020 9780599468993
035 (UMI)AAI9945027
040 UMI|cUMI
100 1 Wiesmann, Jurgen
245 10 Regulating China's state enterprises: Environmental
policy as a bargaining game
300 115 p
500 Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 60-
09, Section: A, page: 3452
500 Adviser: Peter Schran
502 Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
1999
520 This study proposes a new conceptual framework for
analyzing the environmental regulation of state
enterprises in China. It characterizes the regulatory
relationship as a complex bargaining process between
powerful local governments and relatively autonomous state
-owned enterprises. The bargaining involves economic as
well as environmental variables and leads to case-by-case
solutions rather than the uniform application of anonymous
laws. Based on this framework, the study derives a number
of hypotheses about the forces that drive the
environmental performance of state enterprises and
subsequently tests them with econometrical methods. More
specifically, the study finds that old and loss-making
enterprises receive easier regulatory treatment. In
addition, regulators whose budget is tightly constrained
tend to apply relatively lax environmental regulations and
may exempt many enterprises from regulation altogether
520 The study recognizes the obvious shortcomings in China's
environmental performance. However, it argues that it is
insufficient to focus exclusively on either enforcement
problems or the design flaws of individual policies. By
contrast, the study identifies some of the macroeconomic
and institutional factors that constrain the ability of
policy makers to effectively address China's environmental
problems. In particular, the study points to the extreme
decentralization of the Chinese bureaucracy which has
local authorities deal with environmental problems that
extend far beyond their own territory. Moreover, the
regulation of loss-making state enterprises poses numerous
problems. Many local authorities are operating on a tight
budget and are unable to sufficiently subsidize such
enterprises to ensure their compliance with environmental
targets. The fact that loss-making enterprises have
private information about their abatement costs aggravates
the situation, since it gives the enterprises an
opportunity to capture information rents from the
regulator. Finally, the application of clean technologies
in loss-making enterprises proves difficult because of the
great informational asymmetries involved
590 School code: 0090
650 4 Economics, General
650 4 Political Science, Public Administration
690 0501
690 0617
710 2 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
773 0 |tDissertation Abstracts International|g60-09A
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