IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gig/chaktu/v40y2011i3p77-112.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Streamlining Local Behaviour Through Communication, Incentives and Control: A Case Study of Local Environmental Policies in China

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Heberer
  • Anja Senz

Abstract

This article describes how China uses evaluation ratings and monitoring as incentives in order to foster the implementation of environmental policies at the local level. It is argued that decentralisation in China leaves room for actors at the local levels to manoeuver and bargain with those on higher levels for flexible adjustment of implementation policies according to local conditions. However, decentralisation is accompanied by significant institutional changes in the structure of intergovernmental communication, incentives and control. Accordingly, decentralisation in China exhibits a specific design which leaves space for divergent local environmental policies while also engendering “grass-roots mechanisms”. On the whole, this new institutional setting benefits the implementation of environmental policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Heberer & Anja Senz, 2011. "Streamlining Local Behaviour Through Communication, Incentives and Control: A Case Study of Local Environmental Policies in China," Journal of Current Chinese Affairs - China aktuell, Institute of Asian Studies, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 40(3), pages 77-112.
    • Handle: RePEc:gig:chaktu:v:40:y:2011:i:3:p:77-112
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hup.sub.uni-hamburg.de/giga/jcca/article/view/453/453
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gørild Heggelund & Ellen Backer, 2007. "China and UN environmental policy: institutional growth, learning and implementation," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 7(4), pages 415-438, December.
    2. Shilong Piao & Philippe Ciais & Yao Huang & Zehao Shen & Shushi Peng & Junsheng Li & Liping Zhou & Hongyan Liu & Yuecun Ma & Yihui Ding & Pierre Friedlingstein & Chunzhen Liu & Kun Tan & Yongqiang Yu , 2010. "The impacts of climate change on water resources and agriculture in China," Nature, Nature, vol. 467(7311), pages 43-51, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xun Cao & Qing Deng & Xiaojun Li & Zijie Shao, 2022. "Fine me if you can: Fixed asset intensity and enforcement of environmental regulations in China," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), pages 983-1004, October.
    2. Ting Guan & Dieter Grunow & Jianxing Yu, 2014. "Improving China’s Environmental Performance through Adaptive Implementation—A Comparative Case Study of Cleaner Production in Hangzhou and Guiyang," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(12), pages 1-20, December.
    3. Kostka, Genia, 2014. "Barriers to the implementation of environmental policies at the local level in China," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7016, The World Bank.
    4. Kong Fanjing, 2024. "The Influences of Multi-Level Environmental Regulations on Firm Performance in China," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 18(1), pages 1-13.
    5. Kostka, Genia, 2013. "China's evolving green planning system: Are targets the answer?," Frankfurt School - Working Paper Series 201, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.
    6. Xijia Huang & Yiting Guo & Yuming Lin & Liping Liu & Kai Yan, 2022. "Green Loans and Green Innovations: Evidence from China’s Equator Principles Banks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-20, October.
    7. Victor Kaiyuan Lin & Jenn‐Hwan Wang, 2023. "The Green Energy Transition and Peripheral City Development in China: Towards a Local Eco‐developmental State," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 54(3), pages 514-542, May.
    8. Stefan Brehm & Jesper Svensson, 2017. "A fragmented environmental state? Analysing spatial compliance patterns for the case of transparency legislation in China," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 471-493, October.
    9. Tan, Jing & Liu, Tianyi & Xu, Hao, 2024. "The environmental and economic consequences of environmental centralization: Evidence from China's environmental vertical management reform," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    10. Xingshuai Wang & Ehsan Elahi & Zainab Khalid & Mohammad Ilyas Abro, 2023. "Environmental Governance Goals of Local Governments and Technological Innovation of Enterprises under Green Performance Assessment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-19, January.
    11. Ahlers, Anna L. & Heberer, Thomas & Schubert, Gunter, 2015. "'Authoritarian Resilience' and effective policy implementation in contemporary China: A local state perspective," Working Papers on East Asian Studies 99/2015, University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute of East Asian Studies IN-EAST.
    12. Wu, Mingqin & Cao, Xun, 2021. "Greening the career incentive structure for local officials in China: Does less pollution increase the chances of promotion for Chinese local leaders?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    13. Zhou, Di & Yin, Xiaoshuo & Xie, Dongchun, 2023. "Local governments’ environmental targets and green total factor productivity in Chinese cities," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    14. Huang, Yanfen & Zhang, Chao & Liu, Wei, 2019. "Who drives the formation and adoption of the "increasing versus decreasing balance policy"?—Evidence from a policy process analysis," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 175-184.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xianbing Liu & Yanli Dong & Can Wang & Tomohiro Shishime, 2011. "Citizen Complaints about Environmental Pollution: A Survey Study in Suzhou, China," Journal of Current Chinese Affairs - China aktuell, Institute of Asian Studies, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 40(3), pages 193-219.
    2. Dieter Grunow, 2011. "Structures and Logic of EP Implementation and Administration in China," Journal of Current Chinese Affairs - China aktuell, Institute of Asian Studies, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 40(3), pages 37-75.
    3. Richard Louis Edmonds, 2011. "The Evolution of Environmental Policy in the People’s Republic of China," Journal of Current Chinese Affairs - China aktuell, Institute of Asian Studies, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 40(3), pages 13-35.
    4. Qingzhi Huan, 2011. "Regional Supervision Centres for Environmental Protection in China: Functions and Limitations," Journal of Current Chinese Affairs - China aktuell, Institute of Asian Studies, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 40(3), pages 139-162.
    5. Niels Thevs, 2011. "Water Scarcity and Allocation in the Tarim Basin: Decision Structures and Adaptations on the Local Level," Journal of Current Chinese Affairs - China aktuell, Institute of Asian Studies, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 40(3), pages 113-137.
    6. Arthur P. J. Mol & Guizhen He & Lei Zhang, 2011. "Information Disclosure in Environmental Risk Management: Developments in China," Journal of Current Chinese Affairs - China aktuell, Institute of Asian Studies, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 40(3), pages 163-192.
    7. He, Liuyue & Xu, Zhenci & Wang, Sufen & Bao, Jianxia & Fan, Yunfei & Daccache, Andre, 2022. "Optimal crop planting pattern can be harmful to reach carbon neutrality: Evidence from food-energy-water-carbon nexus perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    8. Ding, Yimin & Wang, Weiguang & Song, Ruiming & Shao, Quanxi & Jiao, Xiyun & Xing, Wanqiu, 2017. "Modeling spatial and temporal variability of the impact of climate change on rice irrigation water requirements in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 89-101.
    9. Bu, Lingduo & Chen, Xinping & Li, Shiqing & Liu, Jianliang & Zhu, Lin & Luo, Shasha & Lee Hill, Robert & Zhao, Ying, 2015. "The effect of adapting cultivars on the water use efficiency of dryland maize (Zea mays L.) in northwestern China," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 1-9.
    10. Wenfeng Chi & Yuanyuan Zhao & Wenhui Kuang & Tao Pan & Tu Ba & Jinshen Zhao & Liang Jin & Sisi Wang, 2021. "Impact of Cropland Evolution on Soil Wind Erosion in Inner Mongolia of China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-16, June.
    11. Agni Kalfagianni & Oran R. Young, 2022. "The politics of multilateral environmental agreements lessons from 20 years of INEA," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 245-262, June.
    12. Xu, Ying & Findlay, Christopher, 2019. "Farmers’ constraints, governmental support and climate change adaptation: Evidence from Guangdong Province, China," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 63(4), October.
    13. Zhongen Niu & Huimin Yan & Fang Liu, 2020. "Decreasing Cropping Intensity Dominated the Negative Trend of Cropland Productivity in Southern China in 2000–2015," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-14, December.
    14. Yuhong Shuai & Liming Yao, 2021. "Adjustable Robust Optimization for Multi-Period Water Allocation in Droughts Under Uncertainty," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 35(12), pages 4043-4065, September.
    15. Zhang, Fengtai & Xiao, Yuedong & Gao, Lei & Ma, Dalai & Su, Ruiqi & Yang, Qing, 2022. "How agricultural water use efficiency varies in China—A spatial-temporal analysis considering unexpected outputs," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    16. Chen, Qi & Qu, Zhaoming & Ma, Guohua & Wang, Wenjing & Dai, Jiaying & Zhang, Min & Wei, Zhanbo & Liu, Zhiguang, 2022. "Humic acid modulates growth, photosynthesis, hormone and osmolytes system of maize under drought conditions," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 263(C).
    17. Kang, Shaozhong & Hao, Xinmei & Du, Taisheng & Tong, Ling & Su, Xiaoling & Lu, Hongna & Li, Xiaolin & Huo, Zailin & Li, Sien & Ding, Risheng, 2017. "Improving agricultural water productivity to ensure food security in China under changing environment: From research to practice," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 5-17.
    18. Zhihai Yang & Amin W. Mugera & Fan Zhang, 2016. "Investigating Yield Variability and Inefficiency in Rice Production: A Case Study in Central China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-11, August.
    19. Xiaoguang Chen & Madhu Khanna & Lu Yang, 2022. "The impacts of temperature on Chinese food processing firms," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 66(2), pages 256-279, April.
    20. Sicong Wang & Changhai Qin & Yong Zhao & Jing Zhao & Yuping Han, 2023. "The Evolutionary Path of the Center of Gravity for Water Use, the Population, and the Economy, and Their Decomposed Contributions in China from 1965 to 2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-20, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gig:chaktu:v:40:y:2011:i:3:p:77-112. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Karsten Giese or Heike Holbig (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dueiide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.