Economic growth, environmental sustainability and China mayors' promotion

Abstract In this study, we follow the concept of “promotion tournament” and extend the competition model to describe a Chinese government official's behavior, and examine the impact of economic performance and environmental quality on a Chinese mayor's political career. Empirical results show that both indicators affect the promotion of Chinese mayors, while such impacts vary across regions. We also find that there are heterogeneous results across pollution types. The main results hold for pollution that can be detected easily by the public. In contrast, less eye-catching pollution do not block a mayor from promotion significantly. Public opinions do exert pressures toward mayors' promotion. However, when considering the mayors' personal characteristics, the performance assessment mechanism is no longer remarkable, which demonstrates that the promotion of a Chinese administrative official depends more heavily on his political resume.