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<p>This study investigates how target-based performance evaluation affects the spatial allocation of environmental enforcement. Using China’s ambient air quality monitoring network as a quasi-experimental setting, we combine high-frequency firm-level emissions data and a difference-in-differences design. We document a 12.6% reduction in nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions among polluting firms located near newly established monitoring stations, relative to more distant firms. This disparity reveals a strategic reallocation of enforcement effort by local governments to improve visible air quality metrics tied to career incentives, rather than to achieve broad pollution abatement. While such selective enforcement helps jurisdictions meet top-down performance targets, it creates a <i>“monitoring-proximity paradox,”</i> whereby regulatory effort becomes spatially concentrated.</p>

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Strategic Enforcement Distortion Under Target-Based Environmental Governance: Spatial Heterogeneity in Pollution Mitigation and Policy Implications

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月29日

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  • Fan Xia,
  • Xiaoxiao Shen,
  • Renpei Zhang,
  • Bing Zhang

摘要

This study investigates how target-based performance evaluation affects the spatial allocation of environmental enforcement. Using China’s ambient air quality monitoring network as a quasi-experimental setting, we combine high-frequency firm-level emissions data and a difference-in-differences design. We document a 12.6% reduction in nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions among polluting firms located near newly established monitoring stations, relative to more distant firms. This disparity reveals a strategic reallocation of enforcement effort by local governments to improve visible air quality metrics tied to career incentives, rather than to achieve broad pollution abatement. While such selective enforcement helps jurisdictions meet top-down performance targets, it creates a “monitoring-proximity paradox,” whereby regulatory effort becomes spatially concentrated.