Chapter 3 of Greening Industry deals with this topic directly. Most recently, Pargal et al have studied plant level data from the US and Indonesia and found, despite the differing characteristics of the two countries that community incomes have a powerful negative association with pollution intensity. These findings suggest a powerful role for informal regulation whether or not formal regulation is in place. This is not to suggest that the community that complains the loudest is necessarily the neediest. Dasgupta and Wheeler's research in China shows that the regulatory agency reacts to more than 100,000 complaints a year.
Visible pollutants get too much attention, and communities with low literacy get too little.
A group of researchers from the World Bank's environment section are studying the behavioral aspects of community involvement in Brazil. Here is a brief description of that work. Related Resources Discussion of why public information might be effective is continuing. The New Approaches paper from Wheeler et al describes the rationale. An Econometric Analysis of the Adoption of Propane by Traditional Brickmakers in Cd.