The Discussion of Mechanism Selection for Pollution Control—based on Chinese SO2 Case

Abstract Western Developed countries established pollutant emission rights trading market to control pollution and got good results. China got the same result rapidly by command & control. Which mode is better? This paper contrasts the pollution control cases of U.S and China, and discusses the standard of pollution control mechanism selection. Emission trading market is man-made and cannot operate well without administrative order. Command & control can also lead low effective firms out of the industry. A conclusion is drawn that in the circumstance of market failure without non-mature environment for market, command & control mode can get high efficiency and low cost results.