激励环境公共品供给：来自中国城市绿化的证据

摘要

China’s rapid surge in urban greening in recent years presents a puzzling deviation from global patterns. We document three stylized facts. Urban greening was stable from 2001 to 2013 but expanded rapidly afterward, coinciding with China’s air pollution control efforts. More polluted cities experienced faster greening growth, and greening disproportionately occurred near air quality monitoring stations. These patterns suggest that urban greening expansion after 2013 in China was largely driven by political pressure arising from air pollution control. The economic benefits of the urban greening expansion exceed the program costs. Our results suggest that top-down air pollution control reshaped local government incentives, improving the provision of environmental public goods and social welfare.