THE POWER OF VISIBLE HANDS: AN ENVIRONMENTAL STRUCTURAL DECOMPOSITION ANALYSIS CONSIDERING THE PEOPLE'S DAILY EFFECT

As an organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the People's Daily (PD) has a critical influence on China's policies and economy. This study examines the impact of the PD on China's economic structural changes and industry environmental performance. To separate the ‘PD effect’ from other effects in total sectoral CO₂ emission changes, we propose a new variation of structural decomposition analysis using the frequencies of keywords employed in the PD. We use data from the PD for 2001 to 2011 and the Chinese input–output tables for 2002, 2005, 2007, and 2010. The results show that, on average, the PD effect explains about 11% of changes in total sectoral CO₂ emissions. Specifically, the PD has a relatively strong impact on the mining and utility sectors, while its impact on the manufacturing sectors is relatively weak.