Obtaining credible data is the basis for effective environmental governance. Each country has its own approach to monitor and collect key environmental data. In China, the central government has long relied on environmental data that is self-monitored and self-reported by local authorities (Lei Liu et al., 2017). However, studies show that China’s environmental data are often inaccurate because local officials have strong incentives to manipulate this data for career concerns (e.g., Chen et al., 2013; Gao, 2016; Bromabl, 2017). To tackle this issue and improve the quality of data, since the mid-2010s, the national leaders have emphasized the involvement of qualified, profit-making third-party organizations in the collection of key environmental data at all local levels. Under such policies, the number of third-party organizations has proliferated in recent years, and their role in environmental monitoring becomes increasingly important.
Has the involvement of the market force improved the quality of China’s environmental data? Studies on this issue are still rare. Our study attempts to fill this gap. We will start with explaining the rationale of this reform, with a focus on why the third-party organizations are viewed as an effective remedy to resolve the problem of data manipulation under China’s existing environmental regulatory system. Then, we will explain how the central and local governments collaborate with the third-party organizations in collecting key environmental data. After this, we will use the regression discontinuity model to show whether this collaboration has improved the credibility of environmental data in China.
Our study will use a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative data are collected from in-depth interviews with relevant officials from local environmental monitoring centers and the leaders of third party organizations in Guangdong Province. In addition, we use five-year air and water quality data collected from publicly available sources in Guangdong Province to conduct the discontinuity analysis. Our study will contribute to the existing literature by challenging the conventional view that China is featured by “environmental authoritarianism” (see for example, Kista and Mol, 2013; Lo, 2015), and providing empirical evidence on the effectiveness of the third-party organizations in improving the quality of China’s key environmental data.
