Abstract: Economic growth seems inevitably accompanied by pollution, and the devotion of enterprises to environmental protection has received much attention. This paper is based on the sample survey on the private enterprises in 2008 and 2010 to study the impact of their political connections on pollution control expenditure. The result shows that the political connections have a significant positive effect on environmental protection and sewage charges. In other words, companies with political connections have higher inputs and pay more for sewage charges. The previous conclusion remains solid after considering the endogeneity problem of political connections. Sub-industry survey shows that political connections on the promotion of environmental pollution control may have a significant effect only on enterprises of heavy polluting and insignificant in those of light pollution. Further test reveals positive and negative impact mechanisms. On one hand, political connections promote pollution control through its impact on corporate social responsibility. The political relationship of enterprises brings more social responsibility, which leads to investment increase in environmental protection and pollution control. In addition, political connections inhibit the pollution control through its impact on the enterprise's rent-seeking motivation. Enterprises use their political connections in rent-seeking to reduce their investment in environmental protection and pollution control. We also find that when the political connection level of private enterprises is low, it significantly promotes expenditure, but when the level is high, it has a significant negative effect on environmental pollution control. This study reveals the impact and inner mechanism of political connections on the environmental pollution control of private enterprises, and has theoretical and practical significance for actively guiding enterprises to fulfill their responsibility in environmental friendly production.

Key words: political connections, environmental protection investment, sewage charges, private enterprises