主题｜Topic：Attentions Online, Abatement Offline: A Natural Experiment from the Social Media in China
时间｜Time：4月17日（周五）｜April. 17th (Friday)，2:00-5:15PM
地点｜Venue：网课｜Online
主讲｜Speaker
梁平汉，中山大学政治与公共事务管理学院教授，博士生导师，研究领域为地方政府行为，行为与实验经济学，博弈论等，在Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Comparative Economics，《经济研究》、《管理世界》、《经济学（季刊）》、《中国工业经济》、《世界经济》等国内外一流学术期刊发表论文三十余篇，曾获教育部高等院校青年教师奖，教育部高等学校科学研究优秀成果奖等，主持国家自然科学基金项目多项。
研究领域｜Research Interests
地方政府行为，行为与实验经济学，博弈论
摘要｜Abstract
This paper investigates the causal impact of public attentions from social media on firms pollutants emissions. The unexpected release and short-lived circulation of the environmental documentary Under the Dome in China, 2015, offers a natural experiment. We use the number of microblog posts about the documentary to measure online public attentions. Based on a comprehensive firm-level dataset, we find that more public attentions in a city are associated with significantly less pollutants emissions of local firms. To address the endogeneity problem from censorship, we instrument the public attentions by the city’s distance to the nearest cities covered in the documentary. We combine multiple datasets on the behavior of individuals, firms, and governments, and investigate three channels: individual environmental awareness; consumers pressures on firms; and public pressures on local authorities. In particular, public attentions lead to more environmental complaints online, and local governments consequently strengthen environmental regulations enforcement.
