Impacts of the economic-political reform on environmental impact assessment implementation in China

Economic, political and institutional reform has significant implications for environmental regulation; however, the linkages between them have received little attention in the research literature or in governmental studies until very recently. This paper analyzes the impacts of economic—political reform on environmental regulation in China by examining the implementation of its environmental impact assessment (EIA) system. Local governments can design and enforce their own environmental policies, while local leaders have both incentive and means to impede the implementation of environmental regulations when deemed unfavorable for local economic growth. The paper argues that the impacts of China's economic-political reform on its environmental regulation in general, and EIA implementation in particular, are mixed and less than beneficial.