Study On The Impact Of Official Appraisal System On Environmental Governance Performance

The modernization of environmental governance system and governance capacity is an important institutional basis for the construction of ecological civilization.The establishment and improvement of the assessment and incentive system for government officials is an important content of the modernization of environmental governance system and governance capacity.It is of great theoretical and practical significance to study the relationship between the assessment system of government officials and environmental governance performance.Based on the principal-agent theory and the tournament theory,this paper selects the relevant panel data of 285 prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2018 to evaluate the relationship between the official evaluation system included in environmental indicators and environmental governance performance by using the differential method.During the sample period,the assessment system of officials was continuously improved.In order to comprehensively investigate the relationship between the assessment system of officials and environmental governance performance after environmental protection indicators were included in the performance assessment of officials,regression analysis was carried out in stages: The data from 2003 to 2010(the first stage)were used for the principal regression analysis.The year 2006 was taken as the time node to explore the impact of local government officials on environmental governance performance after environmental indicators were incorporated into the assessment system.Data from 2011 to 2018(the second phase)were used for expansion analysis,with 2012 as the time node.The regression results of the two stages are compared and analyzed to explore whether the environmental protection index is included in the official assessment system,and whether the environmental governance behavior of local government officials is long-term,and whether the incentive distortion in the principal-agent relationship between the central government and local government and the resource allocation distortion of local government officials can be effectively alleviated.On this basis,the influence of the age,tenure and environmental supervision of the party secretaries and mayors of prefecture-level cities is further included,and the effect on environmental governance and pollution reduction is analyzed.In addition,this paper conducted a series of robustness tests,including parallel trend test,placebo test,changing the measurement method of explained variables,and adding concurrent event test,to ensure the robustness of regression results.The study found that after the inclusion of environmental protection indicators into the official assessment system,the sulfur dioxide pollution emissions of cities in the "two controlled areas" with high emission reduction standards decreased significantly,and the regional environment was significantly improved.Moreover,with the improvement of the assessment system,the incentive distortion between central and local governments and local government officials was alleviated to a certain extent.And the environmental governance policies linked to the official evaluation system have long-term effects.The effect of the change of official assessment system on environmental governance will be affected by the age,tenure of officials and environmental protection supervision.The study found that environmental protection supervision can have a deterrent effect on the environmental governance behavior of local officials,and promote the environmental governance behavior of local government officials due to the change of assessment system.Due to the long-term and complex nature of environmental governance,local officials whose age and tenure are above the median will have better environmental governance performance.Based on the empirical research conclusions of this paper and the theoretical logic between the official assessment system and environmental governance performance,this paper draws some policy implications,including improving the official assessment system,improving the measurement of environmental governance indicators,and improving the supervision system involving enterprises,society and the public.