Cross-Border Water Pollution Regulation - A Study of Pollution in Transadministrative River Basins in China

Author: Zeng Wenhui
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-02-01
Features: This book is divided into eight chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the research background, significance, and the structure of the book. Chapter 2 analyzes the nature of transboundary pollution and its regulatory characteristics, reviews the economics literature on transboundary pollution, summarizes the achievements and shortcomings of existing studies, and thereby determines the research direction of this book. Chapter 3 examines the transboundary river pollution issues across administrative regions in China, conducting case studies and theoretical research on the externality characteristics of transboundary water pollution, the regulatory orientation of government under fiscal decentralization, and the performance of water pollution environmental regulation. Chapter 4 conducts a detailed study of the regulatory institutions for transboundary water pollution. From the perspective of environmental property rights, it explains the selection of environmental regulatory institutions and provides an analytical framework for centralized regulation versus decentralized regulation under unidirectional river transboundary pollution. It also discusses the supply of localized public goods with spillover effects. Building on the research in Chapter 4, Chapter 5 explores regional cooperation and river compensation. Chapter 6 further examines the regulatory instruments for transboundary water pollution. The research from Chapters 4 to 6, while discussing effective government regulatory institutions, also reveals the limitations of government regulation in addressing China's transboundary water pollution governance issues. Chapter 7, in the context of the development trends of public management under the market economy transition, explores the voluntary regulation of transboundary water pollution. This chapter primarily examines the possibility of water users, interest groups, or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as third-party participants in transboundary pollution control. Through a comparative study of unilateral government regulation, multilateral government regulation, and voluntary regulation, it discusses the effectiveness of the "voluntarily providing public goods" organizational form in transboundary pollution governance. Chapter 8 is the conclusion, summarizing the entire book, analyzing the policy implications of the research findings, and addressing the shortcomings of this study and future research directions.