房价控制与工业污染：来自房地产市场乱象治理的证据

Abstract

In recent years , the central government has been resolutely regulating the real estate market , which has changed the expectations of economic agents regarding the continued rise in housing prices . The way in which local governments have been responding to the cooling trend of the real estate market is worthy of in-depth study . Drawing on the quasi-experiment of the “ Special Action to Control Chaos in the Real Estate Market ” policy implemented from July to December 2018 , this paper uses the difference-in-differences approach to identify the impact of housing price control policies on regional environmental pollution . Empirical results reveal that the policy implementation significantly reduces the level of housing prices in the pilot cities and increases the degree of industrial pollution in the pilot areas . A more detailed analysis indicates that to cope with the negative impact on land finance likely caused by housing price control , local governments relaxed environmental oversight to develop industries , which eventually led to an increase in industrial pollution . Nonetheless , the promotion of regional innovation can reduce the economic incentive of local governments to sacrifice environmental protection objectives , and the strengthening of external environmental regulation can reinforce the motivation of local governments to protect the environment , both of them will help curb the unintended polluting effects that housing price control may produce .