Influence of government attention on environmental quality: An analysis of 30 provinces in China

Scholars have argued that government attention can exert influence on public policy formulation. Yet the impact and process of how government attention affects regional environmental pollution emission outcomes remains unclear. This study uses the China Provincial Government Environmental Attention Database (2003–2019), constructed by examining environmental keywords in government work reports (GWR), to elucidate how government attention influences environmental quality, and the synergistic mechanisms between government attention and environmental social feedback. Key results include the following, (1) government environmental attention is showing a fluctuating upward trend. (2) Government attention significantly contributes to regional pollutant emissions reductions. Each 1% increase in the government attention index contributes to regional pollution abatement of 0.130 units. (3) Environmental enforcement and environmental fee are the two most effective channels to promote pollution abatement. (4) There exist synergistic effects between environmental social feedback and government attention. Our findings highlight how government attention influences enterprise pollution emissions by the signal and pressure effects, shedding new knowledge on the relationship between government, environmental department, enterprise, and the public. Based on the findings, this paper proposes that keeping government attention stable, implementing multiple environmental instruments, encouraging environmental participation, and raising central government supervision will lead to improved environmental quality.