As an important measure to strengthen the local government's enforcement in the environmental protection and to promote the national sustainable air pollution control, using the panel data of 225 prefecture-level cities in China from 2014 to 2018, this paper analyzes the policy effect of the central environmental protection inspection on the local air quality improvements by applying the multi-phase difference-in-differences method. It is shown that the central inspection of the ecological and environmental protection has a significant effect on the reduction of PM10, SO₂, and CO; a continuous effect on the reduction of the local SO₂ and CO; while it does not work well for the sustainable reduction of PM10. For the improvement of the local air quality, we suggest to further implement the Central Inspection of Ecological and Environmental Protection, and to pay more attention to the control of the mobile sources pollution, the construction dust, and the secondary air pollutants.

central inspection of ecological and environmental protection  /  local governments  /  air quality  /  multi-phase difference-in-difference method