Governance Mechanisms of Confucian Culture on Sewage Discharge of industrial Enterprises: Considering the Mediating Role of Public Environmental Concerns

Based on the data consisting of 3743 city-year observations in China from 2011 to 2022, this study utilizes the multi-dimensional fixed-effects panel regression models and the Bootstrap test method to analyze the impact of Confucian culture on the sewage discharge of industrial enterprises as well as the mediating role of public environmental concerns in the relationship between the two. The empirical results show that Confucian culture, as a representative of environmentally friendly social culture, can significantly improve the situation of sewage discharge of industrial enterprises. The mechanism analysis suggests that Confucian culture greatly improves public environmental concerns by effectively shaping and guiding public attitudes and behaviors, which in turn strengthens informal environmental monitoring and inhibits sewage discharge of industrial enterprises. In addition, this study further confirms that that the informal environmental monitoring mechanisms (Confucian culture, public environmental concerns) and formal environmental monitoring mechanisms (government environmental regulations) can play a synergistic and strengthening role in the governance of sewage discharge