社会资本对生活垃圾减量的影响及其作用机制

在经济快速增长、城镇人口持续增加，以及人民生活水平大幅改善的同时，我国生活垃圾产生量也在急剧增加。为回答规制政策和社会资本能否有助于缓解垃圾围城压力这一现实问题，文章利用城市层面的面板数据及中国综合社会调查数据，考察了规制政策和社会资本对城市人均生活垃圾排放量的影响。结果表明：（1）生活垃圾收费政策和源头分类试点政策并没有如预期的那样显著降低城市人均生活垃圾排量，固定费率的生活垃圾收费政策甚至会提高生活垃圾排放群体的排放量。（2）社会资本对城市人均生活垃圾排放量具有显著负向影响，该结果在使用了不同测量指标、不同度量方法、不同估计方法和考虑了社会资本内生性的情形下依然稳健。（3）进一步的影响机制分析发现，社会资本通过促进居民垃圾分类投放和垃圾源头减量行为从而降低生活垃圾排放。文章为推进中国环境管理转型的政策设计提供了一个有益的视角。

Municipal Solid Waste Reduction: Regulatory Policy or Social Capital

Along with rapid economic growth, increasing urban population, and substantially improved living standards, the total amount of municipal solid waste has increased dramatically in China. In order to answer the specific question of whether regulatory policies and social capital can help relieve the pressure of garbage siege, this paper systematically examines the impact of regulatory policies and social capital on per capita waste generation with a city-level panel data file combined with the Chinese General Social Survey data. The empirical results provide evidence as follows. Firstly, waste charging system and waste source separation policy do not significantly reduce waste generation per capita as expected. Flat-rate waste charging system might even increase waste generation of groups with high generation level. Secondly, social capital significantly and negatively influences per capita waste generation, which keeps constant with employing different measurement indexes, measurement methods and estimation techniques, and taking into account the endogeneity problem of social capital. Thirdly, social capital reduces waste generation by promoting household behavior on waste sorting and source reduction. Finally, among the three social capital components, social trust and social norms have significantly decreased per capita waste generation. Nevertheless, the waste reduction effect of social capital appears to have a fluctuant downward trend as time goes by. This paper provides a unique insight into the policy design on how to promote environmental management transition in China.