Abstract：
As an essential re-supervision system of the environmental regulation, the environmental audit can help improve the quality of the ecological environment by correcting the deviation of local governments\' environmental regulatory behavior. This study constructed a conceptual model of environmental audit affecting water quality, and empirically examined the effects and mechanism through the difference in difference (DID) regression and the mediating analysis. The panel data were collected from 76 cities covered by the surface water quality monitored by China Environmental Monitoring Station from 2006 to 2017. The results indicated that: (1) the overall effect of the environmental audit on the water quality was positive but not significant; (2) the environmental audit mainly encouraged local governments to strengthen superficial regulations with lower cost, more immediate and perceptible effects, but failed to promote the advanced regulation to reduce the pollution sources and fundamentally improve the water quality. On this basis, the policy implications were proposed that the environmental audit should be strengthened to further promote the advanced regulation and improve water quality constantly.
摘要：
作为环境规制必不可少的再监督体系,环境审计可以通过纠正地方政府环境监管行为的偏差来提高生态环境质量。本研究构建了影响水质的环境审计概念模型,并通过差异（DID）回归和中介分析实证检验了影响和机制。面板数据来自中国环境监测总站2006-2017年地表水水质监测覆盖的76个城市。研究结果表明:(1)环境审计对水质的总体效果是正的,但不显著;(2)环境审计主要鼓励地方政府以更低的成本加强浅层监管,更直接和可感知的效果，但未能促进先进的法规，以减少污染源，从根本上改善水质。在此基础上,提出了加强环境审计的政策含义，进一步推进超前监管，不断改善水质。
