The Role of Public Environmental Concern in Mitigating Haze Pollution : Insights from the Yangtze River Delta Cities

Public environmental concern, emanating from online forums, can enhance pollution regulation discussions and address apparent shortfalls of the way governments manage pollution. To better understand this issue, our study uses microscopic panel data from 41 cities in the Yangtze River Delta in China from May 2014 to December 2019 to investigate the effect of public environmental concern (PEC) on haze. The results show a positive spatial correlation of haze pollution among cities. Moreover, PEC contributes to the reduction of haze pollution in local and neighboring areas. Heterogeneity analysis shows that public environmental concern has the most significant effect on haze mitigation in cities with poorer levels of economic development, higher levels of Internet access, and lower education development. Further analysis shows that PEC has a temporal effect, with the effect of PEC on pollution lasting about two months, and the spatial spillover effect of PEC on haze occurs only at close distances and is no longer significant when the distance exceeds 100 km. Therefore, the Yangtze River Delta region should strengthen regional environmental collaborative governance and establish a multiple and efficient environmental pollution governance system