Policy attention drives PM2.5 concentration reduction in China: evidence from spatial econometric analysis

Abstract This article examines the relationship between government policy attention and air quality improvement in 285 Chinese cities between 2014 and 2019. We use the frequency of environmental-related vocabulary in annual government reports as an indicator of policy attention and employ a spatial panel model to quantify the impacts of policy attention on PM2.5 concentration reduction. This study attempts to explore the key driving factor from the perspective of government’s motivation and behavior and reveal the effectiveness difference by identifying heterogeneity derived from region endowment discrepancy. Our results demonstrate that environmental policy attention has a significant negative effect on PM2.5 concentration, both directly and indirectly. This study testifies the mechanism behind the effect that policy attention promotes green innovation by affecting relevant enterprises’ expectations and formulating incentive policies, which partially contributes to pollution control and PM2.5 concentration reduction.