Suchergebnisse

Based on the new institutionalism theory of sociology, this article analyzes the institutional changes in the "great unity", the "integration of inside and outside of the curriculum", and the "grand curriculum" models of the university public physical education curriculum since the establishment of the People's Republic of China. In the future, the public physical education curriculum developed for universities should highlight the curriculum value rationality, create the reform path of the characteristic curriculum system, and consolidate the cultural understanding system.

AbstractAfter a decade of planning and trials, China officially launched a national carbon trading in July 2021. Using a standard economic model, this study shows that an unconstrained carbon trading market would face a dilemma between minimizing pollution control costs and maximizing social benefits. We further show that this would be a significant challenge in China. Our results show that areas with higher population densities also would have higher costs for carbon reduction, and hence the polluters in those areas would be net buyers in the national market. Moreover, our analysis indicates a significantly high correlation between carbon dioxide emissions and other local pollutants. Therefore, cross-regional transactions may result in more emission of other pollutants in areas with higher population density under the unconstrained national cap-and-trade system and cause larger losses in social benefits. We call for more studies to address the issue.

AbstractThe use of campaign‐style enforcement is often criticized for its lack of long‐term impacts and lack of impacts beyond campaign‐focused issues. Using a mixed approach that combines regression analysis and in‐depth interviews, we studied the campaigns against straw burning in several provinces of China, and found evidence to support the contrary. The campaigns did effectively reduce straw‐burning activities, and more importantly, the impact appears to be long lasting and may spill over to other environmental issues. We further found that informal institutions, such as Chinese face culture and the close ties between village cadres and farmers, play a very important role in determining the length and range of a campaign's impact. The values and limitations of campaign‐style enforcement are discussed.

Performance improvement sits at the heart of the study of public administration. Performance improvement requires performance measurement and relies heavily on effective management of human capital. This paper addresses both performance measurement and management of human capital in the context of China. China introduced its civil service system in 1993 with performance improvement as its ultimate goal. After years of implementation and practices, we attempt to make an overall assessment of the reform with a straightforward question "Has the civil service system improved government performance?" Taking the Education Bureau of Ningbo City as a case, our research design begins with efficiency measurement of the bureau and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is applied as the measurement tool. A comparison of agency performance before and after the introduction of the civil service system is carried out to obtain the basic judgment on the effects of the reform. Then seven contributing factors are ranked on the basis of structured focus-group interviews with civil service reform as one of them. It is found that limited efficiency gain was achieved in the Education Bureau and civil service reform made little impact on agency performance. Some theoretical explanations to those findings are provided. We hope that the study not only provides a case for assessment of the civil service reform against its stated goals, but also sheds light on the use of DEA method in efficiency measurement.

Starting on January 1, 2016, all Chinese couples are allowed to have two children. This marks the end of China's one‐child policy, which has restricted the majority of Chinese families to only one child for the last 35 years. Yet, China's policy change came at least a decade later than it should have. The costly lessons to be learned are not only in politics and public policymaking, but also in how parts of the academic community informed and misinformed public policymaking.