About this episode

This episode discusses the implications of China's shift from local to centralized policymaking through the research of Shaoda Wang.

The common perception of Chinese governance is a strong, centralized state. For decades, however, the vast majority of the country's policies originated with local governments, as officials experimented, competed, and copied each other's successes. In this episode, Shaoda Wang of Harris Public Policy describes his research analyzing 3.7 million government documents to trace the origin and diffusion of Chinese policies, revealing the economic costs of the country's shift toward centralized policymaking.

People in this episode

Guest: Shaoda Wang

Topics covered

• Chinese governance
• policy experiments
• centralized policymaking
• local governments
• economic costs

Keywords

• China
• governance
• policy
• experiments
• centralization
• economic costs
• local governments

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Harris Public Policy

Places: China

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