ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the temporal and regional variation of pollution law enforcement in China. It also discusses variation in enforcement over time, then geographical variation, including both the current year value of enforcement variables and the one-year lagged value of those variables in the regressions to investigate the causal relation between enforcement and pollution. The chapter provides an overview of the national total frequency of sanctions against polluting firms environmental protection bureaus (EPBs) have issued throughout the country for each year. Governmental data about environmental law enforcement allow us a unique view into regional variation. The largest frequency of sanctions is in provincial level municipalities, coastal, and especially north-eastern regions. Since the late 1990s central-level politicians have increasingly shown more commitment to strengthen pollution enforcement. Local governments play a key role in pollution law enforcement.
