Effects of China's environmental policy on carbon emission efficiency

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effect of environmental policy China's national program to address climate change on carbon emission efficiency. Design - Based on the directional distance function, the provincial total factor carbon emission efficiency was measured. Then, the authors analyzed the effect of environmental policy on carbon emission efficiency based on a difference in difference model. Finding - Carbon emission efficiency has been significantly improved since the environmental policy China's national program to address climate change was put forwarded, but the positive impact in different periods and regions is different. In addition, the environmental policy improves the carbon emission efficiency through the reduction of energy intensity and adjustment of the industrial structure. Originality/value - This is the first time to use difference in difference model to use a difference in difference model to quantitatively assess the influence of environmental policy China's national program to address climate change on carbon emission efficiency.