---
title: "Environmental regulation research: papers and trends"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “environmental regulation” appeared in 1,931 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (1,077), finance (506) and management (163)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/environmental-regulation
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/environmental-regulation.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “environmental regulation” appeared in 1,931 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (1,077), finance (506) and management (163). (as of 2026-11-03)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-03T18:03:37+09:00
window: 2026-10-05 to 2026-11-03
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “environmental regulation”

Research on “environmental regulation” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “environmental regulation” appeared in 1,931 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (1,077), finance (506) and management (163).
- 403 of them were published in 2025, against 73 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Xiamen University (50), Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (43) and Capital University of Economics and Business (40).
- The journals publishing most of them were Finance research letters (156), Energy Economics (131) and International Review of Economics & Finance (126).
- The most-cited of them is “Environmental regulation, green technology innovation, and industrial structure upgrading: The road to the green transformation of Chinese cities” (Energy Economics, 2021), with 1,192 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 52 | 43 | 44 | 67 | 74 | 100 | 177 | 181 | 176 | 163 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 33 | 47 | 119 | 184 | 104 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 3 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 20 | 23 | 21 | 34 | 17 | 32 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 17 | 11 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 17 | 22 | 17 | 18 | 13 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Health Economics and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/health-economics-and-policy.md) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| [Statistics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/statistics.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| All categories | 73 | 64 | 56 | 90 | 115 | 175 | 276 | 359 | 403 | 320 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Finance research letters](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/finance-research-letters.md) | 156 |
| 2 | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 131 |
| 3 | [International Review of Economics & Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-economics-finance.md) | 126 |
| 4 | [Economic Analysis and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-analysis-and-policy.md) | 116 |
| 5 | [Resources Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/resources-policy.md) | 72 |
| 6 | [International Review of Financial Analysis](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-financial-analysis.md) | 68 |
| 7 | [Technological Forecasting and Social Change](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technological-forecasting-and-social-change.md) | 39 |
| 8 | [Economic Modelling](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-modelling.md) | 34 |
| 9 | [Research in International Business and Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/research-in-international-business-and-finance.md) | 33 |
| 10 | [Energy Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-policy.md) | 32 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Xiamen University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/xiamen-university.md) | 50 |
| 2 | [Zhongnan University of Economics and Law](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/zhongnan-university-of-economics-and-law.md) | 43 |
| 3 | [Capital University of Economics and Business](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/capital-university-of-economics-and-business.md) | 40 |
| 4 | [Central University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/central-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 38 |
| 5 | [Nanjing University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/nanjing-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 36 |
| 6 | [Southwestern University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/southwestern-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 33 |
| 7 | [University of International Business and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-international-business-and-economics.md) | 33 |
| 8 | [Xi'an Jiaotong University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/xi-an-jiaotong-university.md) | 33 |
| 9 | [Hunan University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/hunan-university.md) | 32 |
| 10 | [Peking University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/peking-university.md) | 30 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 1,055 |
| 2 | United States | 99 |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 86 |
| 4 | Australia | 61 |
| 5 | France | 53 |
| 6 | Hong Kong | 39 |
| 7 | Spain | 34 |
| 8 | Italy | 32 |
| 9 | South Korea | 27 |
| 10 | Macao | 25 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [China](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/china.md) | 371 |
| 2 | [green innovation](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/green-innovation.md) | 227 |
| 3 | [Chinese listed companies](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/chinese-listed-companies.md) | 197 |
| 4 | [state-owned enterprises](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/state-owned-enterprises.md) | 170 |
| 5 | [financial constraints](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/financial-constraints.md) | 169 |
| 6 | [CO2 emissions](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/co2-emissions.md) | 109 |
| 7 | [green finance](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/green-finance.md) | 107 |
| 8 | [regional heterogeneity](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/regional-heterogeneity.md) | 95 |
| 9 | [green transition](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/green-transition.md) | 69 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,192 | 17.7 | [Environmental regulation, green technology innovation, and industrial structure upgrading: The road to the green transformation of Chinese cities](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105247) | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 2021-03-26 | Kerui Du, Yuanyuan Cheng, Xin Yao |
| 2 | 880 | 11.7 | [How do environmental regulation and environmental decentralization affect green total factor energy efficiency: Evidence from China](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2020.104880) | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 2020-07-24 | Haitao Wu, Yu Hao, Siyu Ren |
| 3 | 775 | 11.5 | [Green technology innovation and financial development: Do environmental regulation and innovation output matter?](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105237) | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 2021-03-18 | Chengchao Lv, Changhua Shao, Chien‐Chiang Lee |
| 4 | 681 | 6.5 | [Career concerns and multitasking local bureaucrats: Evidence of a target-based performance evaluation system in China](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2018.02.001) | [Journal of Development Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-development-economics.md) | 2018-02-13 | Yvonne Jie Chen, Pei Li, Yi Lu |
| 5 | 646 | 8.0 | [How does environmental regulation promote technological innovations in the industrial sector? Evidence from Chinese provincial panel data](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111310) | [Energy Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-policy.md) | 2020-02-24 | Xiaoling Ouyang, Qiong Li, Kerui Du |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “environmental regulation”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/environmental-regulation

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-environmental-regulation,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “environmental regulation”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/environmental-regulation}},
  urldate = {2026-11-03},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).