Many environmental agencies rely on citizen complaints for guidance in addressing pollution problems, because their own monitoring resources are scarce. Unfortunately, analysis of China's experience suggests that such complaints are a seriously biased source of information.
Visible pollutants get too much attention, and communities with low literacy get too little.
China's environmental regulators respond to over 100,000 citizen complaints per year. The complaints process undoubtedly provides some useful monitoring information, and an important avenue for community participation in environmental policy. However, it also directs a major share of China's inspection resources toward areas where individuals or communities have a high propensity to complain. In an analysis of provincial data for the period 1987-1993, Dasgupta and Wheeler find that the resulting allocation is subject to significant bias from a social welfare perspective. The incidence of complaints does reflect potential abatement benefits and the intensity of exposure to highly visible pollutants.