Information, incentives, and environmental governance: Evidence from China’s ambient air quality standards

Information and incentives are pillars of political accountability. We examine their effectiveness in achieving governance under China’s new ambient air quality standards. By exploiting the sequential introduction of pollution information disclosure and environmental performance evaluation, we show that transparency alone is insufficient to induce public monitoring or government responsiveness. But when information provision is combined with performance incentives, local bureaucrats take actions to reduce pollution. The findings suggest that in a top-down hierarchy, when superiors receive accurate environmental information and administer rewards or sanctions based on that information, local governments face greater accountability pressure and respond by improving environmental performance.