Concentration of industrial pollution in China

We pioneer the application of the Theil index, a statistic primarily used to measure economic inequality or racial segregation, to studying the concentration of local pollutants. While most discussions are on reducing the level of pollution, our goal is to investigate the effect of China's development strategies on the distribution of pollution. Decomposition of the index into the between-region and within-region concentrations provides a unique policy evaluation for China. We find that while the within-region and between-region imbalances of industrial output have both been reduced, the speed of diversion of pollution does not follow. There is not much between-region movement of pollution over time. Most changes are within-region.