Effect of Environmental Regulation on Public Health: Analysis of Environmental Pollution and Economic Growth as the Mediating Factors

Abstract

Abstract: The goal of government environmental regulation is to provide residents with a good living environment to protect the health of residents. Existing studies on environmental regulation mainly focus on the economic impact and environmental effect of environmental regulation, but there are relatively few studies on the relationship between environmental regulation and residents’ health, as well as the path and characteristics of action. This paper uses the data of China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to estimate the impacts of different environmental regulation policy tools on public health by using the multi-layer mixed effects ordered Logistic regression model. Environmental pollution and economic growth are included in the mediating effects model to analyze the pathway mechanism of their impacts. The panel threshold model is used to further explore the heterogeneity of the impact of environmental regulations on public health in regions with different economic development conditions and pollution control levels. The findings are as follows. (1) Environmental regulation has a significant promoting effect on the improvement of public health. (2) Environmental regulation promotes the improvement of public health through the mediating effect of environmental pollution and economic growth. (3) The effect of environmental regulation on public health shows regional differences, and the effect of environmental regulation is stronger in regions with rapid economic development and better environmental pollution control. (4) The command-control and market-incentive environmental regulation policy tools significantly promote the improvement of residents’ health, among which the market-incentive environmental regulation policy tools have the best effect on health improvement, while the voluntary environmental regulation tools have no significant effect.

Key words: environmental regulation, regulation tools, public health, environmental pollution, economic growth

Zou Yurou, Wang Guangbin, Lv Chen. Effect of Environmental Regulation on Public Health: Analysis of Environmental Pollution and Economic Growth as the Mediating Factors[J]. Management Review, 2025, 37(6): 252-262.

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