Different extent of environmental information disclosure across chinese cities: Contributing factors and correlation with local pollution

This paper uses the dataset of Pollution Information Transparency Index covering 113 Chinese cities and the period of 2008-2011 to find out what contributes to different levels of environmental information disclosure across Chinese cities and the correlation between cities' Pollution Information Transparency Indexes and local pollution. We find that cities whose mayors have longer tenures and PhD degrees are likely to release more environmental information. In addition, the higher the number of internet users and income per capita, the closer a city is to Hong Kong, and the lower a city's unemployment rate, the greater the level of environmental disclosure is. An efficient local legal system is also found to facilitate information disclosure. We also find that in most cases, high Pollution Information Transparency Indexes are associated with lower pollutant levels and more pollution-control investment, suggesting the effectiveness of China's environmental disclosure in pollution control. Community pressure for a better environment is shown to reinforce the role of environmental disclosure in pollution reduction. We find no evidence that environmental disclosure improves the efficacy of traditional environmental regulation in pollution control. Nevertheless, different aspects of environmental disclosure vary a lot in their effectiveness in pollution reduction and the results here indicate that inducing cities to respond to public information requests is perhaps the most effective method of pollution control in China. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.