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Performance Ranking and Environmental Governance: An Empirical Study of the Mandatory Target System
Author(s) -
Tang Xiao,
Liu Zhengwen,
Yi Hongtao
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
review of policy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1541-1338
pISSN - 1541-132X
DOI - 10.1111/ropr.12298
Subject(s) - ranking (information retrieval) , environmental governance , context (archaeology) , corporate governance , incentive , globe , china , competition (biology) , public economics , environmental policy , empirical research , tournament , business , environmental economics , environmental resource management , economics , political science , computer science , microeconomics , geography , finance , mathematics , philosophy , law , ecology , archaeology , biology , ophthalmology , epistemology , machine learning , medicine , combinatorics
With the deterioration of the environment across the globe, environmental problems have attracted much attention from the public, academia, and governments. This study contributes to the understanding of environmental policy implementation by empirically testing the policy feedback theory and official ranking tournament theory in the Chinese context. In particular, it focuses on how prior environmental performance ranking transitions into future policy performance through the mandatory target system (MTS) in China. The results from this study show that provincial environmental performance ranking serves as an effective incentive for strengthening environmental governance. Low‐ranking provinces will improve their environmental policy performances in future years because of competition in the official tournament. Policy implications are drawn to improve the administrative design of environmental management.