Information disclosure and public participation in environmental management: Evidence from the river chief system in China

This paper evaluates the River Chief System (RCS), an institutional innovation in river governance. The RCS mandates government disclosure of administrative responsibilities and invites public supervision. Our model expands the traditional public goods theory to a discrete choice application, highlighting the mechanism of RCS that can potentially lead to outcomes closer to the social optimal. Using resident questionnaires from Shanghai, our empirical analyses confirm improved water quality under the RCS. Moreover, we find that information disclosure increases residents' willingness and active involvement in river management, which implies a critical mechanism that may help maintain the long-term effectiveness of environmental policies.