How Environmental Regulations Affect Labor Mobility:An Analysis Based on the Dual Perspectives of Population Inflow and Outflow Across Cities
China's early extensive development model not only brought rapid economic growth but also revealed environmental risks.In recent years,environmental regulation and pollution control have become hot topics in environmental economics.Although there are many studies on the impact of environmental regulation on employment and environmental pollution control,only a few have explored the impact and mechanism of environmental regulation on individual labor mobility at the micro level.As one of the main tools for local government environmental governance,environmental regulation changes the cost-benefit relationship within and between enterprises.This not only improves the regional environmental quality but also affects the transformation of enterprise production and operation methods.It even reshapes China's labor spatial allocation pattern to a certain extent.This study investigates the impact of environmental regulations on labor mobility decisions from the dual perspectives of cross-city inflow and outflow.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)We combined the intensity of urban environmental regulation with the 2013～2017 National Dynamic Monitoring Survey of Migrant Population and conducted research based on the conditional logit model.We found that urban environmental regulation inhibits labor inflow.Through year-by-year regression;replacement of core explanatory variables;and using Poisson and negative binomial regression,endogeneity tests,and changes in regression samples,the conclusion still holds.(2)This study constructs a city-level net population outflow dataset based on the 2010 National Population Census data and the 2015 1％Population Sample Survey data.After empirical testing with the intensity of environmental regulation,it was found that enhancing environmental regulation promoted net population outflow,thus systematically explaining the impact of environmental regulation on labor mobility from both inflow and outflow perspectives.(3)Environmental regulation inhibits labor inflow by reducing employment opportunities and causing labor outflow;it attracts labor to flow in by improving environmental quality and inhibiting outflow.Therefore,the direction of the impact of environmental regulation on labor mobility is uncertain.At present,the negative effect of reducing employment opportunities dominates,and the effect of environmental improvement is small.(4)The impact of environmental regulation has individual and city heterogeneity.Younger,female,and highly educated mobile individuals are more likely to be negatively impacted by environmental regulation,while coastal provinces,south of the Qinling Mountains and Huaihe River,and smaller cities have more obvious inhibitory effects.This study builds on the existing literature on the overall effects of environmental regulations in the labor market and creatively approaches the comprehensive impact of local government environmental regulations on labor reallocation from the perspectives of labor inflow and outflow.It enriches the existing literature on the influence of environmental regulation policies on labor mobility.The contributions of this study can be summarized in two aspects.First,it creatively distinguishes between labor inflow and outflow,departing from the prevailing sole focus in the existing literature on overall labor market dynamics.This enriches the analytical perspective on how urban environmental regulations affect labor mobility.Second,utilizing precise and extensive data from the 2013～2017 National Dynamic Monitoring Survey of Floating Population and employing a conditional Logit model,this study reveals the combined effects of strengthened environmental regulations on both"job reduction"and"job creation."This approach effectively captures the micro mechanisms of how environmental regulations influence labor mobility behavior.The findings offer significant policy implications for enhancing urban environmental regulations and stabilizing the labor force size in China.First,cities should gradually develop and implement stricter environmental standards and regulations,ensuring that these measures do not adversely affect the job market.The government should increase investments in clean energy,green transportation,and sustainable urban infrastructure.By revitalizing green waters and blue skies,optimizing urban planning,and improving the quality of public services,cities can attract high-quality labor,laying a talent foundation for long-term development.This approach aims to achieve a win-win situation of enhanced environmental quality and socioeconomic development.Second,to address the issue of urban environmental regulations squeezing the employment space for the labor force,local governments should focus on promoting green jobs,providing skills training and re-education,implementing flexible environmental regulatory measures,and offering employment compensation and social security.Encouraging public-private partnerships to develop education and training programs targeted at the green economy,increasing investment in research and development of environmental technologies and products,promoting balanced regional development,and raising public awareness of environmental protection and green jobs are crucial.Such a comprehensive strategy is intended to balance environmental protection and employment objectives,promoting the harmonious development of the economy,society,and the environment.Third,the government needs to comprehensively assess the social benefits of environmental governance and scientifically and reasonably formulate comprehensive environmental policies.It should gradually promote the upgrading,transformation,and elimination of various industries,especially heavily polluting ones.Tailored social protection measures and employment assistance programs should be developed for different employment groups and regions,particularly offering more support,including enhanced vocational training,re-education programs,and employment services,for employment groups easily affected and regions significantly impacted by environmental regulations.The government should promote the development of green industries and services to create new employment opportunities for affected populations and consider regional characteristics and city sizes in the environmental policy-making process.This ensures that policies not only effectively improve environmental quality but also minimize the negative impact on labor mobility,thereby achieving harmonious progress in environmental protection and socioeconomic development.
Environmental RegulationLabor MobilityHigh-quality Development
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NSTL
万方数据
