Environmental Disadvantage and the Distribution of Regulatory Inspections in the United States

Abstract Environmental justice research documents unequal exposure to environmental harm, but less is known about how regulatory monitoring is distributed across disadvantaged communities. This study distinguishes baseline regulatory attention from burden responsiveness and examines both dimensions using a county-year panel of environmental inspections in the United States from 2013 through 2022. The analysis combines Environmental Protection Agency inspection records, Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators pollution-burden scores, and Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool classifications for 23,155 observations from 2,500 counties and county-equivalent units. Negative binomial models estimate total, air, and water inspections while accounting for regulated facilities, state differences, annual variation , and repeated observations within counties. Counties containing at least one CEJST-designated tract receive approximately 10.7 percent more total inspections at the average level of logged pollution burden. This association is concentrated in air inspections, while the water-inspection difference is statistically insignificant. The interaction between disadvantage and pollution burden is close to one across outcomes, indicating no stronger inspection response as burden increases. A facility-offset specification and alternative measures of disadvantage qualify the baseline result. The findings show that greater average regulatory attention does not necessarily imply greater responsiveness to environmental need or more inspections per facility in regulatory practice.