Industrial Air Pollution and Food-Security-Relevant Agricultural Output in Eastern China: Pollutant-Specific Evidence and the Role of Governance

Xu Lyu; Shengjie Yang

doi:10.62177/amit.v1i7.1110

Authors

Xu Lyu Wenzhou-Kean University
Shengjie Yang Wenzhou-Kean University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62177/amit.v1i7.1110

Keywords:

Industrial Air Pollution, SO₂ Emissions, NOₓ Emissions, Agricultural Output, Governance Capacity, Waste-Gas Treatment Investment, Two-Way Fixed Effects

Abstract

Industrial air pollution poses growing risks to agricultural development, yet evidence remains mixed on pollutant-specific effects and on whether governance capacity can effectively mitigate these damages. Using balanced provincial panel data from 11 eastern Chinese provinces over 2011–2021, this study examines how industrial sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions relate to agricultural economic output and whether investment in waste-gas treatment moderates these relationships. We estimate a two-way fixed effects panel model with province and year effects, province-clustered standard errors, and interaction terms between pollutants and governance investment. Results show that nitrogen oxides emissions are consistently associated with lower agricultural output across specifications. In contrast, the estimated relationship for sulfur dioxide is less robust and becomes statistically indistinguishable under alternative specifications and intensity-based robustness checks. We do not find robust contemporaneous evidence that governance investment significantly moderates the pollution–agriculture relationship, suggesting that spending levels alone may be insufficient or that governance effects operate with lags and through enforcement quality. Framed within the Sustainable Development Goals agenda, these findings connect cleaner production and institutional capacity to food security, ecosystem protection, climate-related risk management, and effective public administration. The evidence is also relevant to public health and sustainable communities by highlighting potential co-benefits of prioritizing nitrogen oxides control in industrial regions. By identifying a more policy-relevant priority pollutant and clarifying the limits of investment-only approaches, this study advances SDG-oriented research that links environmental indicators, governance mechanisms, and development performance in a unified empirical design.

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