China Policy Journal Volume 1, Number 1, Fall 2018 | Page 106

Subjective and Objective Air Quality in Urban China
amine the congruence of subjective air
quality and objective air quality measured
by government archive data and
the moderating effects of environmental
transparency on the relationship.
Independent and interaction effects of
air pollution and environmental transparency
on public satisfaction with air
quality are quantitatively analyzed by
MLM technique. We find that given
the same level of environmental pollution,
citizens actually would perceive a
better level of air quality with a higher
level of environmental transparency.
Our quantitative analysis reveals the independent
and interaction effects of air
pollution and environmental transparency
on subjective air quality.
Contributing to the literature on
transparency, which has been debating
whether transparency is good for public
administration, this study suggests
that environmental transparency is of
crucial importance in addressing environment
challenges. Other than other
benefits such as better decision making
for government, private businesses,
and individual citizens, one of the
most important benefits for democracy
is environmental information provided
by environmental transparency regime
can of help in constructing citizens’
perceived reality, air quality in this case.
So far, most transparency studies were
conducted in the western democratic
context (Cucciniello, Porumbescu, and
Grimmelikhuijsen 2017). This study
focuses on transparency in the context
of authoritarian China and examine its
effects in a specific policy area, environmental
protection. Our findings imply
that government and nonprofit organizations
can leverage various information-based
policy instruments such as
information disclosure, openness, and
policy campaign to inform, educate,
and empower the public to curb air pollution
collectively (Li 2012).
In the literature of public performance
measurement, the debate on
whether and to what extent subjective
performance measures echoes objective
ones centers on the conceptualization
issues of subjective and objective measurements
and methodological complications
(Kelly 2003). In this study,
we explore the relationship in a new
policy area, environmental protection,
which has not been examined by public
administration scholars. We compare
subjective and objective air pollution
measures to avoid the notorious inputs
versus outcome comparison problems
(Parks 1984). We also adopt a more sophisticated
and advanced research design
and data analytic technique to address
potential statistical complications
such as common method biases. Our
findings suggest that public administrators
should realize that citizens do have
sufficient capacity to detect government
performance and their perception of
government performance is not only
normatively important but also technically
essential (Swindell and Kelly 2000;
Van Ryzin, Immerwahr, and Altman
2008). Furthermore, our study emphasizes
the role government can play in
influencing citizen’s perceptions, highlighting
the potential of environmental
transparency for global environmental
governance (Li 2012; Tan 2014).
Given the escalating air pollu-
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