Abstract
This study examines the causality of the development process of social capacity for environmental management (SCEM), which contributes to urban air quality improvement realized by social actors (i. e., government, firms, and citizens) and factors (i. e., policy & measure, resource management, andknowledge&technology). By applying the stepwise chow test and correlation analysis to a panel data set for years between 1971 and 2000, we show the substitutability of actors' capacity in the case of 3 major cities (i. e., Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka) in Japan as the development process of SCEM. Then, a structural equation model is applied to examine the causality of the development process of SCEM for the period before the substitutability of actors' capacity. The model shows that increasing government capacity has increased firms' and citizens' capacity.
