本地信息、错配与监管执法随机化的成本

Randomized inspections have been introduced to curb collusion and enhance procedural integrity. In China, randomized environmental inspections run alongside routine inspections that preserve local discretion, creating a quasi-experimental setting to assess their causal difference in detecting violations. Using over 160,000 inspection records, we find randomized inspections reduce regulatory effectiveness in detecting violations relative to routine inspections, identifying 32% fewer environmental problems and 88% fewer violations. This stems from weaker targeting of high-risk firms and a mismatch between inspector expertise and firm-specific contexts, which also limits deterrence of future violations. These findings highlight the trade-off between constraining discretion and preserving local expertise in regulatory design.