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Professor of Economics Brian Viard Receives Grant from China’s National Natural Science Foundation for Research on Policies to Alleviate Pollution

August 24, 2021

Congratulations to Associate Professor of Strategy and Economics, Brian Viard whose research, “Alleviating Transboundary Pollution: Policy Design and Evaluation” has received a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Congratulations to Associate Professor of Strategy and Economics, Brian Viard whose research, “Alleviating Transboundary Pollution: Policy Design and Evaluation” has received a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The National Natural Science Foundation of China supports scientific research in economics and management. Professor Viard shares this grant with his co-author Shihe Fu of Xiamen University who is the Principal Investigator on the project and was also a visiting Research Fellow at CKGSB from 2009 to 2010. Four Ph.D. students and one postdoctoral student from XMU are also on the research team.

The project will use large datasets and econometrics to study policies addressing pollution that drifts across political boundaries in China. Such transboundary pollution poses difficult policy questions because local governments may not be able to fully consider the effects on other jurisdictions. Addressing this requires measuring two inputs: how much pollution spills over into neighbouring regions and how much economic damage the pollution causes in these other regions. Possible responses include policies such as the “Cleaner Production Partnership Program,” a policy implemented jointly by the Hong Kong and Guangdong municipal governments, to reduce air pollution in the region. Viard’s research will contribute to the policy design and evaluation by providing new theoretical analysis, empirical methodology, and empirical evidence.

The Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business is China’s first research-focused, independent business school with over 40 full-time faculty members dedicated to gaining a deeper understanding of the various areas in business management from a global perspective. Professor Viard says, “I’d like to thank CKGSB for providing the research environment to make this grant possible.”

Publication: “Air Pollution and Manufacturing Firm Productivity: Nationwide Estimates for China,” forthcoming in The Economic Journal.

Co-Authors: Shihe Fu and Peng Zhang

Publication: “Trans-Boundary Air Pollution Spillovers: Physical Transport and Economic Costs by Distance,” working paper.

Co-Authors: Shihe Fu and Peng Zhang

 

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