Scholars@Duke
Junjie Zhang

Junjie Zhang

Professor in the Environmental Sciences and Policy Division
Environmental Sciences and Policy
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Selected Publications

The population affected by dust in China in the springtime.

Journal Article PloS one · January 2024 Dust events in northern China, particularly in the springtime, affect millions of people in the source and downwind regions. We investigate the population affected by various dust levels in China in the springtime from 2003 to 2020 using satellite retrieva ... Full text Cite

The value of information disclosure: Evidence from mask consumption in China

Journal Article Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · October 1, 2023 We study the effect of information provision on defensive expenditures, using China's roll-out of air pollution information as a quasi-natural experiment. With a unique dataset of high-frequency mask purchase transactions, our difference-in-differences est ... Full text Cite

Rising temperature threatens China’s cropland

Journal Article Environmental Research Letters · August 1, 2022 The rising demand for calories and protein together with urbanization, pose significant challenges to China’s food security. The determination of policy actions requires accurate estimates of climatic impacts on both crop yields (intensive margin) and crop ... Full text Cite

The impact of air pollution on movie theater admissions

Journal Article Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · March 1, 2022 We provide new evidence of pollution avoidance in the movie theater market. Our analysis is based on a unique dataset of high-frequency movie ticket sales in China at the movie- and city-level during 2012–2014. We estimate that one pollution day reduces th ... Full text Cite

Author Correction: Financing a sustainable ocean economy.

Journal Article Nature communications · March 2022 Full text Cite

The effectiveness of China's regional carbon market pilots in reducing firm emissions.

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · December 2021 China has implemented an emission trading system (ETS) to reduce its ever-increasing greenhouse gas emissions while maintaining rapid economic growth. With low carbon prices and infrequent allowance trading, whether China's ETS is an effective approach for ... Full text Open Access Cite

Financing a sustainable ocean economy.

Journal Article Nature communications · June 2021 The ocean, which regulates climate and supports vital ecosystem services, is crucial to our Earth system and livelihoods. Yet, it is threatened by anthropogenic pressures and climate change. A healthy ocean that supports a sustainable ocean economy require ... Full text Cite

Navigating and evaluating the labyrinth of environmental regulation in China

Journal Article Review of Environmental Economics and Policy · June 1, 2021 Full text Cite

Consideration of culture is vital if we are to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

Journal Article One Earth · February 19, 2021 Integrating the social and natural sciences to effectively tackle the intertwined challenges represented by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been advocated for years. However, the practice is challenging, especially with respect to the beliefs, ... Full text Cite

A censored maximum likelihood approach to quantifying manipulation in china’s air pollution data

Journal Article Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists · September 1, 2020 Data manipulation around cutoff points is observed in economics broadly and in environmental and resource economics in particular. This paper develops a simple and tractable censored maximum likelihood approach to quantify the degree of manipulation in Chi ... Full text Cite

Validating China's Output Data Using Satellite Observations

Journal Article Macroeconomic Dynamics · December 1, 2019 Copyright © 2018 Cambridge University Press. Can officially reported output figures be externally validated? This paper presents a dynamic panel framework for assessing statistics using verifiable signals of economic activity. In this context, satellite re ... Full text Cite

Population Exposure to Ambient PM2.5 at the Subdistrict Level in China.

Journal Article International journal of environmental research and public health · November 2018 Fine-particulate pollution is a major public health concern in China. Accurate assessment of the population exposed to PM2.5 requires high-resolution pollution and population information. This paper assesses China's potential population exposure ... Full text Cite

Air pollution and defensive expenditures: Evidence from particulate-filtering facemasks

Journal Article Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · November 1, 2018 Individuals take preventive measures to avoid costly air pollution exposure. This paper provides new empirical evidence of pollution avoidance that Chinese urban residents purchase particulate-filtering facemasks to protect against ambient air pollution. T ... Full text Cite

Regional cooperation on carbon markets in east Asia

Journal Article Asian Development Review · September 1, 2018 The People’s Republic of China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea have launched individual emission trading schemes to control greenhouse gas emissions cost-effectively. This paper reviews key carbon market design elements in the three countries in terms of ... Full text Cite

Temperature effects on productivity and factor reallocation: Evidence from a half million chinese manufacturing plants

Journal Article Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · March 1, 2018 This paper uses detailed production data from a half million Chinese manufacturing plants over 1998–2007 to estimate the effects of temperature on firm-level total factor productivity (TFP), factor inputs, and output. We detect an inverted U-shaped relatio ... Full text Cite

Forecasting China’s Carbon Intensity: Is China on Track to Comply with Its Copenhagen Commitment?

Journal Article Energy Journal · January 1, 2018 In the 2009 Copenhagen Accord, China agreed to slash its carbon intensity (carbon dioxide emissions/GDP) by 40% to 45% from the 2005 level by 2020. We assess whether China can achieve the target under the business-as-usual scenario by forecasting its emiss ... Full text Cite

Carbon Pricing Induces Innovation: Evidence from China's Regional Carbon Market Pilots

Journal Article American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings · 2018 China has launched seven regional pilots of emission trading scheme (ETS) to limit its carbon emissions. Taking advantage of the variations in the regional ETS pilots across regions and sectors and over time, we employ a difference-in-difference-in ... Full text Open Access Cite

Economic impacts of climate change on agriculture: The importance of additional climatic variables other than temperature and precipitation

Journal Article Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · May 1, 2017 Climate change shifts the distributions of a set of climatic variables, including temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind speed, sunshine duration, and evaporation. This paper explores the importance of those additional climatic variables other than tem ... Full text Cite

Lessons learned from China's regional carbon market pilots

Journal Article Economics of Energy and Environmental Policy · January 1, 2017 This paper gives an overview of the performance of China's seven regional carbon market pilots and the range of approaches they have used. We assessed the outcomes of these pilots using publicly available secondary market trading data. The differences in m ... Full text Cite

Chapter 4. Economic Considerations: Cost-Effective and Efficient Climate Policies

Journal Article Collabra · January 1, 2016 In this chapter we discuss the economics of climate change. We begin with a discussion of economic considerations that are important to take into account when designing and evaluating climate policy, including cost effectiveness and efficiency. We ... Full text Cite

The population affected by dust in China in the springtime.

Journal Article PloS one · January 2024 Dust events in northern China, particularly in the springtime, affect millions of people in the source and downwind regions. We investigate the population affected by various dust levels in China in the springtime from 2003 to 2020 using satellite retrieva ... Full text Cite

The value of information disclosure: Evidence from mask consumption in China

Journal Article Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · October 1, 2023 We study the effect of information provision on defensive expenditures, using China's roll-out of air pollution information as a quasi-natural experiment. With a unique dataset of high-frequency mask purchase transactions, our difference-in-differences est ... Full text Cite

Rising temperature threatens China’s cropland

Journal Article Environmental Research Letters · August 1, 2022 The rising demand for calories and protein together with urbanization, pose significant challenges to China’s food security. The determination of policy actions requires accurate estimates of climatic impacts on both crop yields (intensive margin) and crop ... Full text Cite

The impact of air pollution on movie theater admissions

Journal Article Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · March 1, 2022 We provide new evidence of pollution avoidance in the movie theater market. Our analysis is based on a unique dataset of high-frequency movie ticket sales in China at the movie- and city-level during 2012–2014. We estimate that one pollution day reduces th ... Full text Cite

Author Correction: Financing a sustainable ocean economy.

Journal Article Nature communications · March 2022 Full text Cite

The effectiveness of China's regional carbon market pilots in reducing firm emissions.

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · December 2021 China has implemented an emission trading system (ETS) to reduce its ever-increasing greenhouse gas emissions while maintaining rapid economic growth. With low carbon prices and infrequent allowance trading, whether China's ETS is an effective approach for ... Full text Open Access Cite

Financing a sustainable ocean economy.

Journal Article Nature communications · June 2021 The ocean, which regulates climate and supports vital ecosystem services, is crucial to our Earth system and livelihoods. Yet, it is threatened by anthropogenic pressures and climate change. A healthy ocean that supports a sustainable ocean economy require ... Full text Cite

Navigating and evaluating the labyrinth of environmental regulation in China

Journal Article Review of Environmental Economics and Policy · June 1, 2021 Full text Cite

Consideration of culture is vital if we are to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

Journal Article One Earth · February 19, 2021 Integrating the social and natural sciences to effectively tackle the intertwined challenges represented by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been advocated for years. However, the practice is challenging, especially with respect to the beliefs, ... Full text Cite

A censored maximum likelihood approach to quantifying manipulation in china’s air pollution data

Journal Article Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists · September 1, 2020 Data manipulation around cutoff points is observed in economics broadly and in environmental and resource economics in particular. This paper develops a simple and tractable censored maximum likelihood approach to quantify the degree of manipulation in Chi ... Full text Cite

Validating China's Output Data Using Satellite Observations

Journal Article Macroeconomic Dynamics · December 1, 2019 Copyright © 2018 Cambridge University Press. Can officially reported output figures be externally validated? This paper presents a dynamic panel framework for assessing statistics using verifiable signals of economic activity. In this context, satellite re ... Full text Cite

Population Exposure to Ambient PM2.5 at the Subdistrict Level in China.

Journal Article International journal of environmental research and public health · November 2018 Fine-particulate pollution is a major public health concern in China. Accurate assessment of the population exposed to PM2.5 requires high-resolution pollution and population information. This paper assesses China's potential population exposure ... Full text Cite

Air pollution and defensive expenditures: Evidence from particulate-filtering facemasks

Journal Article Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · November 1, 2018 Individuals take preventive measures to avoid costly air pollution exposure. This paper provides new empirical evidence of pollution avoidance that Chinese urban residents purchase particulate-filtering facemasks to protect against ambient air pollution. T ... Full text Cite

Regional cooperation on carbon markets in east Asia

Journal Article Asian Development Review · September 1, 2018 The People’s Republic of China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea have launched individual emission trading schemes to control greenhouse gas emissions cost-effectively. This paper reviews key carbon market design elements in the three countries in terms of ... Full text Cite

Temperature effects on productivity and factor reallocation: Evidence from a half million chinese manufacturing plants

Journal Article Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · March 1, 2018 This paper uses detailed production data from a half million Chinese manufacturing plants over 1998–2007 to estimate the effects of temperature on firm-level total factor productivity (TFP), factor inputs, and output. We detect an inverted U-shaped relatio ... Full text Cite

Forecasting China’s Carbon Intensity: Is China on Track to Comply with Its Copenhagen Commitment?

Journal Article Energy Journal · January 1, 2018 In the 2009 Copenhagen Accord, China agreed to slash its carbon intensity (carbon dioxide emissions/GDP) by 40% to 45% from the 2005 level by 2020. We assess whether China can achieve the target under the business-as-usual scenario by forecasting its emiss ... Full text Cite

Carbon Pricing Induces Innovation: Evidence from China's Regional Carbon Market Pilots

Journal Article American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings · 2018 China has launched seven regional pilots of emission trading scheme (ETS) to limit its carbon emissions. Taking advantage of the variations in the regional ETS pilots across regions and sectors and over time, we employ a difference-in-difference-in ... Full text Open Access Cite

Economic impacts of climate change on agriculture: The importance of additional climatic variables other than temperature and precipitation

Journal Article Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · May 1, 2017 Climate change shifts the distributions of a set of climatic variables, including temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind speed, sunshine duration, and evaporation. This paper explores the importance of those additional climatic variables other than tem ... Full text Cite

Lessons learned from China's regional carbon market pilots

Journal Article Economics of Energy and Environmental Policy · January 1, 2017 This paper gives an overview of the performance of China's seven regional carbon market pilots and the range of approaches they have used. We assessed the outcomes of these pilots using publicly available secondary market trading data. The differences in m ... Full text Cite

Chapter 4. Economic Considerations: Cost-Effective and Efficient Climate Policies

Journal Article Collabra · January 1, 2016 In this chapter we discuss the economics of climate change. We begin with a discussion of economic considerations that are important to take into account when designing and evaluating climate policy, including cost effectiveness and efficiency. We ... Full text Cite

China's sectoral strategies in energy conservation and carbon mitigation

Journal Article Climate Policy · November 6, 2015 This article reviews China's energy and climate strategies in the electric power, industrial, building, and transport sectors. These four sectors account for about three-quarters of China's total energy consumption and energy-related carbon emissions. We i ... Full text Cite

China's hydrofluorocarbon challenge

Journal Article Nature Climate Change · November 5, 2014 Full text Cite

'Effortless Perfection:' Do Chinese cities manipulate air pollution data?

Journal Article Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · September 1, 2014 This paper uses unique data on daily air pollution concentrations over the period 2001-2010 to test for manipulation in self-reported data by Chinese cities. First, we employ a discontinuity test to detect evidence consistent with data manipulation. Then, ... Full text Cite

Fiscal decentralization and environmental infrastructure in china

Journal Article B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy · December 9, 2013 This article provides new evidence that fiscal decentralization has supported economic development by incentiving cities to provide more sewage infrastructure. As a result of the 1994 tax reform, Chinese cities retained different shares of their value-adde ... Full text Cite

The incentives for China’s climate actions

Journal Article International Affairs Forum · June 2013 Full text Cite

Fishermen's perspectives on climate variability

Journal Article Marine Policy · March 1, 2012 Understanding fishermen's perspectives and responses relating to climate variability is important for sustainable fisheries management. To this end, a survey of captains of commercial passenger fishing vessels (CPFVs) was conducted in San Diego. The survey ... Full text Cite

Co-benefits and additionality of the clean development mechanism: An empirical analysis

Journal Article Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · September 1, 2011 The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) allows industrialized countries to comply with the Kyoto Protocol by using carbon offsets from developing countries. There are two puzzles within this carbon market: additionality (the proposed activity would not have ... Full text Cite

Lose some, save some: Obesity, automobile demand, and gasoline consumption

Journal Article Journal of Environmental Economics and Management · January 1, 2011 This paper examines the unexplored link between the prevalence of overweight and obesity and vehicle demand in the United States. Exploring annual sales data of new passenger vehicles at the model level in 48 U.S. counties from 1999 to 2005, we find that n ... Full text Cite

Behavioral response to stock abundance in exploiting common-pool resources

Journal Article B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy · January 1, 2011 Successful regulation of common-pool resources calls for a better understanding of resource exploitation behavior. This paper introduces an approach that can measure fishermen's responsiveness to stock changes more accurately. In order to deal with the cha ... Full text Cite

Estimation of a generalized fishery model: A two-stage approach

Journal Article Review of Economics and Statistics · 2011 U.S. federal law calls for an end to overfishing, but measuring overfishing requires knowledge of bioeconomic parameters. Using microlevel economic data from the commercial fishery, this paper proposes a two-stage approach to estimate these parameters for ... Full text Cite

Effectiveness of marine reserves for large-scale fisheries management

Journal Article Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences · 2006 As more no-take marine reserves are established, the importance of evaluating effectiveness retrospectively is growing. This paper adapts methods from program evaluation to quantify the effects of establishing a marine reserve on fisheries using fishery-de ... Full text Cite