Environmental Vertical Management and Enterprises’ Performance: Evidence from Water Pollution Reduction in China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
It's an interesting study, but it has small adjustments to make. The main correction is to check all references. Some references are mentioned in the text and are not included in the list of references. Additionally, it would be important to further reinforce in the conclusions the limitations of this study and what and how the method can be replicated and the results compared.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Sincerely thanks for your constructive comments and suggestions on improving this manuscript. We have revised the manuscript carefully according to your suggestions. The detailed responses to the comments and modifications are listed point by point as follows.
Q1. The main correction is to check all references. Some references are mentioned in the text and are not included in the list of references.
Response: Thanks for your insightful comments on the references. Apologize we did not list all references in the first manuscript. After carefully checking all references, all references are mentioned in the text and are included in the list of references.
Q2. It would be important to further reinforce in the conclusions the limitations of this study, and what and how the method can be replicated and the results compared.
Response: Thanks for your constructive suggestions on the conclusions. We have adjusted the content of third paragraph of the Section 7 as follows:
There are several limitations to the work presented in our study. One is that due to the implementation scope of EMVR and data availability, this paper fails to analyze the effect of EVMR implementation in a wider range of countries. Another limitation is that the effects of EMVR on WPR performance in agriculture and services are not fully discussed in this paper due to data availability. Despite these limitations, the DID model used in this paper offers a promising approach to investigate the net effect of policy implementation. In future research, given that the current research is confined to specific nations or regions, subsequent investigations could broaden their scope by comparing the effects of EVMR policy implementation across various countries or regions. In addition, future research can delve deeper into the impacts of EVMR implementation on WPR performance in distinct sectors, such as agriculture and services, to comprehensively comprehend the policy’s effects.
Reviewer 2 Report
The article presented addresses an important topic that all countries debate, the reduction of pollution and in this specific case it deals with the reduction of pollution generated by companies.
However, the work is very extensive and the results are difficult to interpret. The conclusions of the work are not clear. If governments and companies have to take action, it is not clear what they should do.
The text should be improve for a better interpretation of the final objective achieved.
Moderate editing of English language required
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Sincerely thanks for your constructive comments and suggestions on improving this manuscript. We have revised the manuscript carefully according to your suggestions. The detailed responses to the comments and modifications are listed point by point as follows.
Q1: The conclusions of the work are not clear. If governments and companies have to take action, it is not clear what they should do. The text should be improved for a better interpretation of the final objective achieved.
Response: Thanks for your insightful comments on the conclusions. Apologize we did not clearly elaborate the conclusions and put forward specific countermeasures in the conclusions and implications. We adjusted the related content of second and third paragraphs of the Section 7 as follows:
The main conclusions of this study were the following. First, the EVMR can significantly promotes the firm-level WPR, indicating the improvement in management efficiency has a positive impact for firm’s environmental performance. Second, the policy effects are heterogeneous in terms of enterprise regions, industry pollution in-tensity and sizes. The positive effects are more pronounced for enterprises in western region, enterprises in low polluting industries, and large enterprises. Third, the influencing mechanism analysis reveals that the EVMR promotes WPR by stimulating pro-duction pattern transformation and decreasing the fresh water consumption rather than by increasing wastewater treatment facilities.
Based on the findings presented above, the following policy recommendations are proposed. First, governments could consider expanding the implementation of EVMR across various regions and industries. This can be achieved by introducing the EVMR to areas where they have not yet been adopted or by further enhancing their scope in implemented regions. A wider adoption of EVMR policies might lead to greater reductions in water pollution discharge. Second, the government could formulate policies that consider the variations in the impact of EVMR across different regions, industry sectors, and enterprise sizes. For instance, enhanced support and incentive measures can be offered to enterprises that exhibit a less significant response to EVMR. Third, government can incentivize enterprises to transform their production patterns. For in-stance, they can promote outsourcing specific production activities, particularly the challenging aspects of wastewater treatment. This approach not only has the potential to yield cost savings for businesses but also enhance the efficiency of water pollution abatement. Furthermore, governmental support for technological upgrades can be instrumental in assisting enterprises in enhancing their wastewater treatment and emissions reduction capabilities.
There are several limitations to the work presented in our study. One is that due to the implementation scope of EMVR and data availability, this paper fails to analyze the effect of EVMR implementation in a wider range of countries. Another limitation is that the effects of EMVR on WPR performance in agriculture and services are not fully discussed in this paper due to data availability. Despite these limitations, the DID model used in this paper offers a promising approach to investigate the net effect of policy implementation. In future research, given that the current research is confined to specific nations or regions, subsequent investigations could broaden their scope by comparing the effects of EVMR policy implementation across various countries or regions. In addition, future research can delve deeper into the impacts of EVMR imple-mentation on WPR performance in distinct sectors, such as agriculture and services, to comprehensively comprehend the policy's effects.
Reviewer 3 Report
Title: Environmental Vertical Management and Enterprises’ Performance: Evidence from Water Pollution Reduction in China
Environmental Vertical Management and Enterprises’ Performance: Evidence
from Water Pollution Reduction in China.Some of the improvements are commented on below.
The abstract should give the methodology of the study, sample selection for the study and time. Also, abbreviate the content of abstract.
The formatting of references should be improved. Please read the MDPI formatting requirements carefully.
The advantages and disadvantages of the DID model are somewhat elaborated and considered. Please refer to the following literature.Fiscal pressure and carbon intensity: A quasi-natural experiment based on education authority reform. Central inspections of environmental protection and transition for low-carbon Chinese cities: policy intervention and mechanism analysis.The impact of the new energy demonstration city policy on the green total factor productivity of resource-based cities: Empirical evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China.
The parallel trend test can be described simply and its principles do not need to be shown in the text with formulas.
A modest discussion and analysis of the results is necessary. A comparative study by comparison is a good measure.
Figure 3 needs improvement. Figure 3 could be deleted if necessary.
Future research directions should be given.
Policy insights should be matched peer-to-peer with results.
Minor editing of English language required
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Sincerely thanks for your constructive comments and suggestions on improving this manuscript. We have revised the manuscript carefully according to your suggestions. The detailed responses to the comments and modifications are listed point by point as follows.
Q1: The abstract should give the methodology of the study, sample selection for the study and time. Also, abbreviate the content of abstract.
Response: Thanks for your insightful comments on the Abstract. We have removed the quantified description of heterogeneity analysis from the abstract. Additionally, we supplement the description about the methodology of the study, sample selection and time. The current abstract is as follows:
Firm-level evidence for the impact of environmental vertical management on enterprise environmental performance is limited, especially on the performance of water pollution reduction (WPR). Taking the environmental vertical management reform (EVMR) as a quasi-natural experiment, this study constructs a time-varying difference-in-differences model to investigate the effects of the EVMR on enterprises’ performance of WPR. Using the latest data of China Industrial Enterprise Database and China Enterprise Pollution Emission Database from 1998 to 2004, we find that the EVMR promotes enterprises to improve performance of WPR. Moreover, heterogeneity analysis shows that the effects vary with region, industry pollution intensity, and size of enterprises. Further mechanism analysis finds that The EVMR reduces water pollution by stimulating production pattern transformation and decreasing the fresh water consumption rather than by increasing wastewater treatment facilities. Our findings verify the rationality of the EVMR in China with empirical evidences and provide beneficial insights for the improvement of environmental management systems in other developing economies.
Q2: The formatting of references should be improved. Please read the MDPI formatting requirements carefully.
Response: Thanks for your valuable suggestions on the references. After reading the MDPI formatting requirements carefully, we have checked and revised the formatting of references.
Q3：The advantages and disadvantages of the DID model are somewhat elaborated and considered.
Response: Thanks for your helpful suggestions on the DID model. We agree that more descriptions about the advantages and disadvantages of the DID model should be elaborated. We have revised the first paragraph of section 3.1.1 as follows:
Difference-in-differences (DID) method is commonly applicable in empirical analysis to obtain the net effects of the policy shock by effectively alleviating the endogeneity problems (Yang et al., 2022; Razzaq et al., 2023). The EVMR, as a typica practice of environmental centralization in China, provides a quasi-natural experiment to establish a DID model. In addition, this study chooses the time-varying DID method to investigate the effects of the EVMR on WPR, since the traditional DID model is not applicable to evaluate the policy effects due to the inconsistent time point of the EVMR implementation (Xue et al., 2023; Razzaq et al., 2023).
Q4: The parallel trend test can be described simply and its principles do not need to be shown in the text with formulas.
Response: We sincerely thank you for the constructive suggestion. We agree that the parallel trend test can be described simply and its principles do not need to be shown in the text with formulas. We removed the Section 3.1.2, and adjusted the content of the Section 4.2 as follows:
This study uses the 12 years prior to and 8 years after the EVMR implementation as observation points to construct a PTT model. The estimated coefficients with their 90% confidence interval are shown in Figure 5. We find that the estimated coefficients are significantly positive or not significant before the implementation of the EVMR, indicating that the difference between the mean values of WPR of the treatment and control groups is fixed or not significant. After the EVMR implementation, the estimated coefficients become negative immediately, indicating the negative effects of EVMR on WPR. These findings show that parallel trend assumption holds (Lyu et al., 2023) and it is rational to use the DID model to investigate the effects of EVMR on WPR.
Q5: A modest discussion and analysis of the results is necessary. A comparative study by comparison is a good measure.
Response: Thanks for your helpful suggestions on the results. We agree that a comparative study by comparison is a good measure to analyze the empirical results. We have adjusted the content of first and second paragraph of the Section 4.3 as follows:
The result in column (1) of Table 3 shows that the coefficient of is significant negative at 5%, which means that EVMR effectively promotes enterprises to reduce their water pollution discharge. This is consistent with the research of Han et al. (2021) and Zhou et al. (2022), who find that the EVMR improves enterprises’ performance in pollution reduction. The result also indicates the improvement in management efficiency has a positive impact for firm’s environmental performance and its importance in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Considering the geographical distribution of the cities implementing EVMR, this paper controls city-level characteristics. Different from studies using region-level data (Fredriksson et al., 2014; Han et al., 2021; Li et al., 2021a), this paper uses data from CIED and CEPED, so the characteristics in firm-level should also be controlled. Specifically, we control enterprises’ growth rates of gross output values, firms’ fixed capital stocks and enterprises’ profit margins. Further regression results are shown in column (2) in Table 3.
Q6: Figure 3 needs improvement. Figure 3 could be deleted if necessary.
Response: We sincerely thank you for the constructive suggestion in Figure 3. We agree that Figure 3 could be deleted without comprising the overall integrity of the manuscript. We have removed the Figure 3 in our updated manuscript.
Q7: Future research directions should be given.
Response: Thanks for your insightful about future research. We have adjusted the content of fourth paragraph of the Section 7 as follows:
There are several limitations to the work presented in our study. One is that due to the implementation scope of EMVR and data availability, this paper fails to analyze the effect of EVMR implementation in a wider range of countries. Another limitation is that the effects of EMVR on WPR performance in agriculture and services are not fully discussed in this paper due to data availability. Despite these limitations, the DID mode used in this paper offer a promising approach to investigate the net effect of policy implementation. In future research, given that the current research is confined to specific nations or regions, future investigations could broaden their scope by comparing the effects of EVMR policy implementation across various countries or regions. In addition, future research can delve deeper into the impacts of EVMR implementation on WPR performance in distinct sectors, such as agriculture and services, to comprehensively comprehend the policy’s effects.
Q8: Policy insights should be matched peer-to-peer with results.
Response: We sincerely thank you for the constructive suggestions. We have adjusted the content of second and third paragraph of the Section 7 as follows:
The main conclusions of this study were the following. First, the EVMR can significantly promotes the firm-level WPR, indicating the improvement in management efficiency has a positive impact for firm’s environmental performance. Second, the policy effects are heterogeneous in terms of enterprise regions, industry pollution in-tensity and sizes. The positive effects are more pronounced for enterprises in western region, enterprises in low polluting industries, and large enterprises. Third, the influencing mechanism analysis reveals that the EVMR promotes WPR by stimulating production pattern transformation and decreasing the fresh water consumption rather than by increasing wastewater treatment facilities.
Based on the findings presented above, the following policy recommendations are proposed. First, governments could consider expanding the implementation of EVMR across various regions and industries. This can be achieved by introducing EVMR reforms in areas where they have not yet been adopted or by further enhancing their scope in implemented regions. A wider adoption of EVMR policies might lead to greater reductions in water pollution emissions. Second, the government could formulate policies that consider the variations in the impact of EVMR across different regions, industry sectors, and enterprise sizes. For instance, enhanced support and incentive measures can be offered to enterprises that exhibit a more significant response to EVMR. Third, government can incentivize enterprises to transform their production patterns. For instance, they can promote outsourcing specific production activities, particularly the challenging aspects of wastewater treatment. This approach not only has the potential to yield cost savings for businesses but also enhance the efficiency of water pollution abatement. Furthermore, governmental support for technological upgrades can be instrumental in assisting enterprises in enhancing their wastewater treatment and emissions reduction capabilities.
Q9: Minor editing of English language required
Response: We sincerely thank you for the insightful comments. After carefully reviewing this paper, we have edited English language required as follows:
Example 1:
After editing: To date, the effect of WPR is overlooked in the context of the EVMR, and our paper fills this gap by providing policymakers with deeper insights on the actual mechanisms through which the EVMR reduces the water pollution discharge.
Before editing: To date, the effect of WPR is overlooked in the context of the EVMR, and our paper fills this gap while provide policymakers with deeper insights on the actual mechanisms through which the EVMR reduces the water pollution discharge.
Example 2:
After editing: Enterprises, being the primary economic contributors and major polluters, play a pivotal role in achieving the SDGs.
Before editing: Enterprises, as the main economic builders and also the main polluters, their environmental performance is a key element in achieving the SDGs.
Reviewer 4 Report
Dear authors of the manuscript Vertical environmental management and company performance: Evidence of the reduction of water pollution in China, after reviewing your work, I want to make some observations and comments:
1. In the abstract, on line 23, between the words "while" and "there," there is an extra space
2. In line 25, you must separate the words "by" and "11.23%."
3. Between lines 36 to 46, this paragraph should be rewritten since the words are repeated too many times
4. In line 45, between the words "and" and "Chine," "Europe" and, "" there is one more space
5. Between lines 125 to 140, There are no references. For what reason?
6. Between lines 167 to 174, There are no references
7. Figure 1 and 2, the references must be placed at the bottom of the figure
8. On line 211, there is a space between the reference and "."
9. On line 399, there is a space between "." and "ace"
10. On line 400, there is a space between "." and "Specially."
11. In line 415, you have to review this line
12. Figure 5 does not mention any part of the manuscript. Review
13. The entire manuscript should be reviewed since there are very long paragraphs that talk about data and statistics but do not refer to the works consulted in the literature, so it can fall into plagiarism if these citations are not considered
14. Throughout the document, all references must be reviewed so that they are in the format requested by the journal
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Sincerely thanks for your constructive comments and suggestions on improving this manuscript. We have revised the manuscript carefully according to your suggestions. The detailed responses to the comments and modifications are listed point by point as follows.
Q1: In the abstract, on line 23, between the words "while" and "there," there is an extra space
Response: Thanks for your helpful comments on the abstract. We have adjusted the abstract on line 23 as follows:
The EVMR can effectively promote enterprises in industries with low pollution intensity to reduce water pollution by 4.55%, while there is no direct relationship between the EVMR implementation and WPR of those in industries with high pollution intensity
Q2: In line 25, you must separate the words "by" and "11.23%."
Response: Thanks for your helpful comments on the abstract. We have adjusted the abstract on line 25 as follows:
It can effectively promote large-, medium-sized enterprises to reduce water pollution by 11.23% and 3.05%, however, it does not affect the WPR of small- and micro-sized enterprises.
Q3: Between lines 36 to 46, this paragraph should be rewritten since the words are repeated too many times
Response: We sincerely thank you for your valuable suggestions. After carefully reading this paragraph, We have adjusted the content between lines 36 to 46 as follows:
Water pollution has become a serious issue due to the lack of water resource protection concepts, and the consequent degradation of the water environment has adversely affected the economic and social development (World Meteorological Organization, 2021). The negative externalities of water pollution imply the need to accelerate the process of water resource protection, and the long regeneration process of water resources implies the necessity of accelerating the process of protection (Choi et al., 2015; Madhav et al., 2020). Governments have also made many efforts to this end, for example, the Europe, the United States and China optimize authority allocation across levels of environmental management departments to strengthen protection (Delmas,2002; Lin et al., 2022). However, in practice, the problem of water pollution has not been effectively solved and the effectiveness of the policy has not been fully realized (Chu et al., 2019).
Q4: In line 45, between the words "and" and "Chine," "Europe" and, "" there is one more space
Response: Thanks for your helpful comments, and we have deleted an extra space between the words "and" and "China," "Europe" and ",". We have adjusted the content on line 45 as follows:
Governments have also made many efforts to this end, for example, the Europe, the United States and China optimize authority allocation across levels of environmental management departments to strengthen protection.
Q5: Between lines 125 to 140, There are no references. For what reason?
Response: Thanks for your helpful comments. After reconsideration, we also agree that adding references will make our article more scientific and credible, so we have revised the manuscript as follows:
After revising: Due to the rapid advancement of industrialization and urbanization, numerous Chinese enterprises have been discharging substantial volumes of wastewater, leading to a grave predicament of water pollution that poses significant threats to both the environment and human health (Chen et al., 2018). To effectively control corporate water pollution discharge, the Chinese government has devised and implemented EVMR. Through these EVMRs, personnel authority, financial power and environmental regulatory authority of environmental protection departments below the prefecture level were uniformly transferred to the prefecture-level environmental protection department, and this department assumes the responsibility for environmental supervision on the whole prefecture-level city (Zhou, 2020; Han et al., 2022). Compared with the previous environmental territorial management system mainly led by the local governments, this policy leverages the compelling enforcement authority of both the central and local governmental bodies to compel enterprises into compliance with environmental regulations and standards, thereby ensuring the containment of their water pollution discharges within reasonable limits.
Before revising: Due to the rapid advancement of industrialization and urbanization, numerous Chinese enterprises have been discharging substantial volumes of wastewater, leading to a grave predicament of water pollution that poses significant threats to both the environment and human health. To effectively control corporate water pollution discharge, the Chinese government has devised and implemented EVMR. Through these EVMRs, personnel authority, financial power and environmental regulatory authority of environmental protection departments below the prefecture level were uniformly transferred to the prefecture level environmental protection department, and this department assumes the responsibility for environmental supervision on the whole prefecture level city. Compared with the previous environmental territorial management system mainly led by the local governments, this policy leverages the compelling enforcement authority of both the central and local governmental bodies to compel enterprises into compliance with environmental regulations and standards, thereby ensuring the containment of their water pollution discharges within reasonable limits.
Q6: Between lines 167 to 174, There are no references
Response: Thank you very much for your suggestions. We regret that we only considered realistic narratives in our first manuscript. After considering your suggestion, we also think that adding references here will further enhance the scientific quality of the article. The revised manuscript is as follows:
After revising: Further development phrase (2007–2014). In the 21st century, the Chinese government prioritized addressing environmental pollution and strengthening centralized environmental management. An illustrative manifestation of this shift was the 2007 Special Environmental Protection Supervision undertaken by the Central Committee and the State Environmental Protection Administration, involving nationwide supervision of local environmental governance (Cai et al., 2015; Han et al., 2021). This indicated an era of heightened centralization in China’s environmental management since 2007, reflected by an upsurge in cities engaging in EVMR implementation.
Before revising: Further development phrase (2007–2014). In the 21st century, the Chinese government prioritized addressing environmental pollution and strengthening centralized environmental management. An illustrative manifestation of this shift was the 2007 Special Environmental Protection Supervision undertaken by the Central Committee and the State Environmental Protection Administration, involving nationwide supervision of local environmental governance. This indicated an era of heightened centralization in China’s environmental management since 2007, reflected by an upsurge in cities engaging in EVMR implementation.
Q7: Figure 1 and 2, the references must be placed at the bottom of the figure
Response: Thanks for your helpful comments. We've placed the references for images 1 and 2 below each of them.
Figure 1. Quantities of cities implementing the EVMR in China (1994–2022).
Data source: the websites of China’s environmental protection departments at all levels, the websites of China’s people’s governments at all levels, the China Environmental Yearbook and environmental protection records at all levels, Baidu Encyclopedia, News Network, etc.
Figure 2. Geographic distribution of the EVMR (1994–2022).
Source: China Standard Map System (Revision number:GS(2016) 1569), see http://bzdt.ch.mnr.gov.cn/index.html
Q8: On line 211, there is a space between the reference and "."
Response: Thanks for your helpful comments, and we have deleted an extra space between the reference and ".". We have revised the manuscript as follows:
Additionally, agency issues could involve information asymmetry (Chod et al., 2021).
Q9: On line 399, there is a space between "." and "ace"
Response: Thanks for your helpful comments, and we have deleted an extra space between "." and "ace". We have revised the manuscript as follows:
After revising: Different from studies using region-level data (Fredriksson et al., 2014; Han et al., 2021; Li et al., 2021a), this paper uses data for CIED and CEPED, thus the characteristics in firm-level should also be controlled.
Before revising: As mentioned, this paper uses data for CIED and CEPED, thus the characteristics in firm-level should also be controlled.
Q10: On line 400, there is a space between "." and "Specially."
Response: Thanks for your useful comments, we have deleted an extra space between "." and "Specially". We have revised the manuscript as follows:
Specifically, we control enterprise’s growth rate of gross output value, firm’s fixed capital stock and enterprise’s profit margin.
Q11: In line 415, you have to review this line
Response: Thanks for your insightful comments , we have already reviewed line 415. We have revised the manuscript as follows:
After revising: In addition, we use different pollution indicators to investigate the effects of EVMR on WPR. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), the main pollutants in wastewater, provide alternative measures to investigate the effect of EVMR on WPR. As shown in columns (3) of Table 3, the coefficient of is −0.0364 (p<0.05).
Before revising: In addition, we use different pollution indicators to investigate the effects of EVMR on WPR. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), the main pollutants in wastewater, provide alternative measures to investigate the effect of EVMR on WPR. As shown in columns (3) of Table 3, the coefficient of is −0.0364 at the 5% level.
Q12: Figure 5 does not mention any part of the manuscript. Review
Response: We sincerely thank you for the helpful comments. In line 428 of the first manuscript, we mentioned the meaning of picture 5, but it does need to be fleshed out further, and the revision is as follows:
After revising: This study uses the 12 years prior to and 8 years after the EVMR implementation as observation points to construct a PTT model. The estimated coefficients with their 90% confidence interval are shown in Figure 5. We find that the estimated coefficients, before the implementation of EVMR, are significantly positive or not significant, indicating that the difference between the mean values of WPR of the treatment and control groups is fixed or not significant (Zhang et al., 2022). In contrast, the estimated coefficients, after the EVMR implementation, become negative immediately, indicating the negative effects of EVMR on WPR. These findings show that parallel trend assumption holds (Lyu et al., 2023) and it is rational to use the DID model to investigate the effects of EVMR on WPR.
Before revising: We conduct PTT using Equation (2), and the estimated coefficients with their 90% confidence interval are shown in Figure 5. We find that the estimated coefficients of are significantly positive or not significant, indicating that the difference between the mean values of WPR of the treatment and control groups is fixed or not significant before the implementation of EVMR (Zhang et al., 2022). After the EVMR implementation, the estimated coefficients of become negative immediately, indicating the negative effects of EVMR on WPR. These findings show that parallel trend assumption holds (Lyu et al., 2023) and it is rational to use the DID model to investigate the effects of EVMR on WPR.
Q13: The entire manuscript should be reviewed since there are very long paragraphs that talk about data and statistics but do not refer to the works consulted in the literature, so it can fall into plagiarism if these citations are not considered
Response: Thanks for your useful suggestions. After reviewing the entire manuscript, we added the references in very long paragraphs that talk about data and statistics but do not refer to the works consulted in the literature as follows:
[1] As the largest developing country, China is facing severe water pollution, and the Chinese government has been committed to reducing such pollution. During the 11th Five -Year Plan period（2006-2010）alone, more than 82 billion yuan was invested nationwide to control industrial water pollution. Data Source: the data comes from the China Industrial Statistics Yearbook (2011).
[2] By 2022, the EVMRs below the province level have been conducted in 157 cities of 12 provinces (municipalities) such as Chongqing, Hebei, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hubei, Shanxi (Figure 1). Data Source: the websites of China’s environmental protection departments at all levels, the websites of China’s people’s governments at all levels, the China Environmental Yearbook and environmental protection records at all levels, Baidu Encyclopedia, News Network, etc.
Q14: Throughout the document, all references must be reviewed so that they are in the format requested by the journal
Response: Thanks for your helpful suggestions on the references. After reading the MDPI formatting requirements carefully, we have checked and revised all references.
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
the authors took the comments into account and made the suggested corrections
Reviewer 3 Report
accept
Reviewer 4 Report
Dear authors of the manuscript Environmental Vertical Management and Enterprises' Performance: Evidence from Water Pollution Reduction in China, the work you present with all the suggested changes and considering the observations made to your manuscript, I can tell you that it can be accepted in its current form.
