Does ranking stimulate government performance? Evidence from China’s key environmental protection cities

With the air quality ranking of China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment as a case, this paper examines whether the public ranking could stimulate the ranked cities to improve performance. The results show that the horizontal ranking, i.e., the relative position among the cities, significantly stimulates the cities to improve air quality. The stimulating effect is significant for all the three type of cities, i.e., cities with good, medium and poor air quality, and is the strongest for the cities with good air quality. However, the stimulating effect for air quality improvement is not enough to alter the air quality comparison among the cities. Compared to other cities, if a city is ranked relatively low in the last year, the air quality in the current year is still relatively poor. The inertia is particularly significant for the cities with poor air quality. The vertical ranking, i.e., if the rank of a city progresses or retrogresses, does not affect the air quality and air quality change of the city. Overall, public ranking is argued to stimulate performance improvement by seducing the competition among local governments, although the actual effect is still subject to the perception of local governments and their capacity to respond to the ranking.

     

作为方法和中国人精神根基的“田园”与“乡村”

作为一个人文研究者,会非常有动力参加一个以社会科学家为主关于中国乡村的讨论,是因为中国过去几十年的成功可以说也是把中国人从"土"里拔出来的过程,与这种状况相对,我近年开始关心我们能否再把自己种回"土"里。而我所以关心这个问题,是我担心如果中国人离开了"土"的帮助,中国人在精神、身心方面能否长久支持下去?任何社会要长期支持下去,都要有一个精神、身心的基础。