METROPOLITAN GOVERNANCE: INSTITUTIONAL ROLES AND INTERJURISDICTIONAL COOPERATION

ABSTRACT: Theories of metropolitan governance tend to underemphasize the salience of jurisdictional politics and jurisdictional institutions. This paper uses a one‐shot prisoner's dilemma experiment, embedded within a questionnaire that was administered to local government officials in a metropolitan region, to evaluate how jurisdictionally based institutional roles (i.e., mayors, city‐council members, executive‐level administrators, department directors) affect the willingness of government officials to participate in metropolitan governance. Even though the incentives of one‐shot prisoner's dilemma games favor defection, we find government officials to be generally inclined toward participating in our proposed metropolitan governance scenario. Contrary to common views that metropolitan cooperation is an unnatural and uncomfortable environment for elected officials, we find elected executives to be particularly supportive of the proposed project. We also find that local government officials are likely to consider the expected benefits to the residents of other jurisdictions when deciding whether their government will participate in an interjurisdictional project.     

The first official city ranking by air quality in China — A review and analysis

Frequent regional haze and fog episodes in China force the central government to adopt air quality as a key indicator to assess the performance of provincial and local governors. The 74 key cities have been selected as pilot cities to carry out real-time air quality monitoring according to the new ambient air quality standards, in which PM_2.5 is for the first time included as one of the six compulsory items. The air quality ranking of the 74 cities has been released in the monthly report by the Ministry of Environmental Protection since January 2013. This is the first official city ranking by air quality in China, which makes air quality to be an important aspect of city branding and city competition. The information disclosure puts political pressure on city and provincial governments as their air quality will be watched by the public and the media. The present study provides a review and analysis of air pollution in China from city scale to regional scale based on the monthly reports in 12 months from August 2013 to July 2014. The official air quality rankings of the 74 cities are discussed from the aspects of geographical location, economic development mode and regional air quality management. The air quality rankings of the 74 cities provide the evidence that improvement of air quality requires industrial restructuring and sustainable development strategy. In addition, joint prevention and regional emission control are also essential.     

Varieties of city regionalism and the quest for political cooperation: a comparative perspective

Urban theorists forecast greater political cooperation within city regions in response to globalization, yet signs of this remain relatively scant in Western Europe and North America. This article helps to explain the gap between theory and reality, as well as suggesting another way of looking at the comparative politics of city regions. The central argument: theorists are correct about the renewed importance of regional politics, but wrong about the importance of intergovernmental political cooperation. Local governments have other ways of pulling together for compelling metropolitan-wide objectives. This is done through processes of political coordination???institutionalized systems of mutual adjustment. Pluralist, associational and macropolitical varieties of political coordination among cities and suburbs empower them to act regionally without much governmental innovation. Each process has specific political limitations, however. They also influence the prospects for political cooperation among governments. Cases in New York, north-central Italy and Holland illustrate this perspective.     

房地产开发雨水利用激励机制研究

房地产开发;雨水利用;非对称信息;激励机制     

政府投资代建制项目监管的动态博弈研究

代建制作为我国投资体制改革的新兴产物,具有传统管理模式不可比拟的优势,同时也存在特有的弊端,因此需要政府进行有效的监管。在综合分析政府投资代建制项目建设过程中政府、代建单位和承建单位三者相互关系的基础上,根据公共寻租理论,分析代建单位与承建单位发生寻租行为的动机;运用博弈论方法建立政府投资项目代建制下三方博弈的动态模型,并对代建单位与承建单位的寻租行为进行博弈分析;根据模型分析结论,从政府监管角度提出了科学治理寻租行为的政策建议和改革措施。     

Game theory based models to analyze water conflicts in the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project in China

This study applied game theory based models to analyze and solve water conflicts concerning water allocation and nitrogen reduction in the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project in China. The game simulation comprised two levels, including one main game with five players and four sub-games with each containing three sub-players. We used statistical and econometric regression methods to formulate payoff functions of the players, economic valuation methods (EVMs) to transform non-monetary value into economic one, cost-benefit Analysis (CBA) to compare the game outcomes, and scenario analysis to investigate the future uncertainties. The validity of game simulation was evaluated by comparing predictions with observations. The main results proved that cooperation would make the players collectively better off, though some player would face losses. However, players were not willing to cooperate, which would result in a prisoners' dilemma. Scenarios simulation results displayed that players in water scare area could not solve its severe water deficit problem without cooperation with other players even under an optimistic scenario, while the uncertainty of cooperation would come from the main polluters. The results suggest a need to design a mechanism to reduce the risk of losses of those players by a side payment, which provides them with economic incentives to cooperate.     

Political competition,spatial interactions,and default risk of local government debts in China

The paper investigates the institutional mechanism behind increasing local government debts and default risk in the last decade in China. Using prefectural-level data from 2010 to 2017, we study the default risk on local government debts through the lens of spatial interactions. Empirical results identify positive spatial interactions of default risk among political neighbouring cities, but not for merely geographic or economic neighbours. Moreover, the spatial interactions vary with local leader's political incentives. These findings altogether suggest the spatial interactions of default risk is driven by political competition among local leaders. The study also rules out alternative explanations such as resource flow effects.     

基于合作博弈的大型基础工程各方利益分配机制研究

针对大型基础工程中经济利益的分配问题。对地方政府,项目法人和农户3个参与方的收益进行了分析并获得了其利益模型。建立了三方合作博弈模型并分析了其在不同联盟下的利益分配,依据各参与方的收益与其Shapley值分配收益相等的原理,确定了项目法人对地方政府的最佳补偿价格的计算模型及地方政府对农户的最佳补偿价格的计算模型。并利用数值模拟对三方在初始价格下的收益与在最佳补偿价格下的收益进行了比较,结果表明3个参与方之间的补偿价格是决定三方最终收益能否公平合理分配的关键,调整后的补偿价格能够改变利益分配的格局,使利益较为公平合理分配,为有效治理冲突及大型基础工程的顺利实现提供保障。     

Offering Incentives for New Development: The Role of City Social Status,Politics, and Local Growth Experiences

The propensity of municipal governments to offer incentives for new development is empirically examined, drawing upon both the literature on local economic development policy and studies of local residential restrictions. The data are from a 1998 mail survey of city managers in California in which officials assessed the likelihood that their local governments would offer financial assistance or zoning changes to various types of new business and residential land uses in their communities. Multivariate analysis indicates that local conditions resulting from past growth patterns—commuting times, job/population balance, and housing affordability—play an important role in shaping respondents’ assessments as to whether their cities are likely to grant incentives. Such factors deserve an important role in explaining local government growth orientations, alongside measures of community status, political institutions, and the strength of progrowth coalitions.     

博弈论视角下的 PPP 模式政府监管研究

PPP 模式在我国公共服务领域的应用日益广泛,越来越多的问题也随之暴露,其中较为突出的是政府监管问题。政府和私人部门的合作,本质上是二者之间博弈的结果。本文以博弈论的视角分别从宏观和微观两个层面利用 4 种博弈模型来分析 PPP 模式下私人部门与政府之间的博弈过程,发现政府监管问题的关键在于促进私人部门积极履约。由此结合我国 PPP模式下政府监管的不足给出如何加强政府监管的合理建议,旨在促进 PPP 模式在我国的发展     

动力和能力双重视角下地方政府PPP参与差异性研究

基于2014-2017年中国省级面板数据,分别研究政府动力和政府能力对地方政府参与PPP的影响及其区域差异,构建地方政府PPP参与度的动力-能力矩阵,分析区域差异形成的原因。结果显示:动力和能力均对地方政府PPP参与度有着显著影响,在全国层面上,能力比动力对地方政府PPP参与度影响更大;动力和能力的影响存在区域差异性。基于上述结论,提出相应对策建议。     

特色小镇PPP项目公私合作行为演化机制研究

为探究PPP模式下特色小镇的公私合作机制,以演化博弈论为理论依据,构建政府方与社会资本方的演化博弈模型,分析双方的演化均衡稳定策略。选取案例项目进行数值仿真,探究各相关变量对演化路径的影响机制。结果表明,提高社会资本方的收益回报,降低积极合作成本,增加消极合作的惩罚力度,降低政府方扶持成本,提升特色小镇PPP项目的社会效益,能改变博弈收敛方向,实现稳定的合作共赢策略。     

FOSTERING LOCAL GOVERNMENT COLLABORATION: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF CASE STUDIES IN OHIO

While the literature on collaborative governance is voluminous and growing, empirical studies that test differing explanations for the success of local government to local government collaborations across policy sectors are not common. This kind of study is important, however, because local government‐to‐local government collaborations may very well have distinctive dynamics, and they are likely to expand in the future as local officials work to develop broad collaborative strategies that extend across policy areas. In this article, we investigate the development and extent of goal achievement in eight cases of this type of collaboration in northeast Ohio. Our investigations illustrate the dynamics of progress for interlocal collaborations, while yielding evidence of goal achievements within four years in six of our eight cases. We also evaluate theoretically derived variables using a Boolean algebraic comparative case study approach, and find that external incentives provided by grants and mandates are consistently associated with at least some level of goal attainment. We also find that the combination of external incentives and past interactions leading to trust consistently predicts success among the cases in our sample. While our findings are preliminary and limited to northeast Ohio, they suggest that promising inter‐governmental collaborations can yield benefits within reasonable periods of time.     

The political side of public utilities: How opportunistic behaviour and yardstick competition shape water prices in Austria

This paper studies the effect of politics on water prices in Austria. When public utilities are under political control, price setting may be affected by political incentives. Besides theories like the political budget cycle, more current research stresses the role of spatial interactions between jurisdictions (yardstick competition). The paper tests for both local political determinants and yardstick competition using a spatial lag model. The results suggest that water prices are lower when political competition is strong and before elections. At the same time the magnitude of the political budget cycle appears to depend upon neighbouring jurisdictions, thus confirming yardstick competition as an indirect determinant of water prices.     

Attitudes towards regionalism in a rapid growth suburb

A key issue confronting our newer suburbs is the stance they should take towards efforts at regional cooperation and coordination of major policy areas. This article analyzes the preferences on this issue held by residents in a rapid growth suburb in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Through factor analysis, four identifiable dimensions of regionalist preferences were obtained from questionnaire responses--administrative cooperation, land-use cooperation, mass transit cooperation, and regional basic services cooperation. Correlational analyses between these dimensions of regionalist preferences and selected community status characteristics, social situation characteristics, and local political participation status of respondents reveal no systematic covariation. Thus municipal policies which influence the population mix within a community with respect to the life situation characteristics measured in this study are not likely to be useful instruments for influencing the preferences, pro or con, of the community towards regionalist policies. Further, local political participants are found to be representative of the larger community's regionalist policy preferences.     

中国城市化与城市空间的再组织

市场化和全球化正在重组尺度体系。本文应用尺度理论,对改革时期中国城市的空间再组织作政治经济分析。改革时期城市化的尺度调整在中央政府、地方政府、企业和市民等不同尺度上发生,对城市发展有重大影响。尺度分析全面考虑全球因素、中央政府和城市中的地方参与者。尽管中央政府和全球因素的角色仍然重要,本文认为在权力下放和市场化之后,中国的地方政府在城市发展中变得愈来愈重要。     

Conflict,Cooperation, And Separation Of Powers In City Government

ABSTRACT: The conflict that typifies urban politics has been considered a central characteristic of the relationship among city government officials as well. This need not be the case. If a distinction is made between the total political process in cities and the governmental process in cities, conflict does not necessarily dominate the latter. Interactions among officials may be characterized not simply by the absence of conflict but by the presence of positive relations based on cooperation. Although forms of government have been differentiated in their capacity to handle conflict, they also differ in the generation of conflict or cooperation. Cities with separation of powers engender conflict among officials, whereas cities without separation of powers possess the conditions under which cooperation is possible. Differences in the nature of interactions among officials cannot be explained entirely by the characteristics of cities, which tend to use one form of government or the other. Observations from selected pairs of moderately large cities of similar size and demographic features, but with different forms of government, support this contention. The cooperative pattern, common in council-manager cities, is a second model of the governmental process that may be used along with the conflictual pattern.     

Regimes and Regional Governance: The Case of Chicago

Regime theory has been used extensively in community governance studies. An analysis of the urban regime theory literature and the regional governance literature reveals that urban regime theory can also be useful in the study of regional governance. Both literatures indicate the critical importance of the nongovernmental sector for effective governance. Indeed, because of the usually weak regional political constituency, the private sector often takes the lead in regional governance initiatives. However, private sector efforts are only successful to the extent that coalitions can be developed with political leaders. The author conducted a study of regionalism in the Chicago metropolitan area where leaders from both sectors have recently formed organizations to address regional issues. He analyzed the two organizations and whether a regional regime can develop given the region’s political culture of local government autonomy and the history of antagonism between the central city and the suburbs.     

关系型贷款在中小型节能服务公司融资中应用

文章运用博弈论原理为解决我国中小型节能服务公司融资困难的问题,设计出前后支撑的两阶段分析模型:即第1阶段为内外信贷机构均衡利率分析;第2阶段为内外信贷机构博弈分析。分析证明了通过关系型贷款,信贷机构和节能服务公司可维持长期信贷关系并获得额外收益。以分析结果为基础,针对中小型节能服务企业的特殊性,提出了基于银企长期互信合作关系的分阶段利率信贷模型,为解决中小型节能服务公司的融资困境提供了新的思路。     

A View from the City: Local Government Perspectives on Neighborhood-Based Governance in Community-Building Initiatives

This article explores the perspective of local governments on the neighborhood-based governance entities being developed by community-building initiatives within their jurisdictions. In general, the governance entities created by these initiatives are seen within a pluralist framework in which they are treated as one of a number of organizations operating on behalf of a neighborhood with which government can choose to work in a number of ways. Public officials see a benefit in working with and through identifiable organizations and community leaders who can broker relationships and provide apparent legitimacy to government activities in the neighborhood. Nevertheless, public officials have identified a number of limitations of such entities, and it is unclear how best to structure their roles, responsibilities, expectations, and lines of accountability.