Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
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Daily Overview |
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Water Pollution Location: B129 Session Chair: Laura Grant, Claremont McKenna College | |
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Rain as Cover: Strategic Sewage Discharge on Rainy Days in China 1: Tsinghua University, China; 2: Chinese Academy of Social Science, China; 3: Capital University of Economics and Management, China Firms often face strong incentives to evade environmental regulation, particularly when compliance costs are high and enforcement relies on on-site inspections. This study investigates how rainfall facilitates strategic pollution behavior. Leveraging daily variation in precipitation across Chinese industrial firms equipped with Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems (CEMS), we identify the causal impact of rainfall on firms’ water pollutant discharges. We find that precipitation significantly increases pollution emissions: a 100 mm rise in daily rainfall leads to a 2% increase in chemical oxygen demand (COD) and a 3.5% increase in ammonia nitrogen (NH₄–N), alongside a 23.9% rise in wastewater discharge volume. These effects are most pronounced during heavy rainfall and are concentrated among manufacturing firms subject to stricter regulation. Firms strategically time discharges based on weather forecasts, exploiting enforcement frictions and natural dilution effects. Citizen monitoring and stronger local enforcement substantially mitigate this behavior, whereas central inspections offer limited deterrence without persistent local incentives. By disentangling firm-level emissions from rainfall-induced non-point pollution, our study provides novel evidence on firms’ exploitation of natural conditions to evade environmental regulation. | |