Does the Mobilization of Economic Growth Targets Aggravate Haze Pollution? — Research Based on Prefecture-level Cities in China

Based on the panel data set of 223 cities at or above the prefecture level, this paper explores the problem of haze pollution from the perspective of economic growth target mobilization.

The research results show that from the national level, the mobilization of economic growth target significantly increases the haze pollution; the strategy imitation of governments at the same level significantly increases the local haze pollution, and the target assessment of higher governments can effectively correct the governance preference of lower governments. The results of the heterogeneity analysis showed that the haze pollution effect mobilized by the economic growth target did not differ significantly between the prefecture-level cities with different administrative levels, but the effect was greater in the prefecture-level cities located in the eastern region and the prefecture-level cities with larger population size.