Effects of Water Quality Monitoring on Plant-Level Pollution: Evidence from the Clean Water Act
利用环境监测点减少70%的自然实验，发现《清洁水法》下的主要市政工厂在监测减少后增加了污染物排放，生化需氧量排放量和浓度相对对照组提高18%至39%。
This paper utilizes a 70% drop in ambient water quality monitoring to show that point sources increase their pollutant discharges in the posttreatment period. Our sample examines 264 major municipal plants in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia from 1990 to 2010. Results show that plants in the treatment group increase the relative quantity and concentration discharges of biological oxygen demand between 18% and 39% in contrast to the control group. Estimated coefficients are large in magnitude given prior evidence on the inflexibility of water pollution abatement levels relative to discharge limits. <i></i>