Research on the Impact of the County-to-District Reform on Environmental Pollution in China

Based on the panel data of 267 prefecture-level cities in China from 2003 to 2016, this paper adopts propensity score matching (PSM) and difference-in-difference (DID) as research methods test analyze impact effect county-to-district reform environmental pollution. The results show that: (1) reforms have significantly increased urban After changing time space sample size reformed cities, there is no obvious difference estimated results; (2) In terms time, pollution has a short-term dynamic, between industrial wastewater waste-gas pollution; (3) By region, eastern level after reforms, both coefficient significance Mid-West are weaker than those East, presents Eastern > Central Western; (4) Mechanism testing shows that expand agglomerate population. former exacerbates effects pollution, while latter suppresses growth Therefore, it necessary for government reduce institutional constraints population migration big blind land expansion so promote reduction.