Path to A Happier Nation: The evaluation of incorporating happiness measure in to performance system in Guangdong
Supervisors: John Raine and Tony Bovaird
Improving people’s happiness has claimed to be one of the primary objectives of Chinese government. In the case of Guangdong province, the provincial government establishes a set of performance indicators purported to build a happier region. Under this background, I conceptualize this policy initiation as using performance management to improve the quality of public service. More specifically, my principal concern is how public sectors in local authority use the performance information to improve their work. Before handling this problem, I explore the time trend of life satisfaction in China as well as the determinants of happiness of Chinese people, which help us to get a sense of ‘life satisfaction’ in China. The subsequent chapters are devoted to the use of performance information in the case of Guangdong. I mainly concern how public officials use the information produced by the performance indicators proposed by the provincial government.
I have completed a bachelor and master degree in the major of public administration. My maser dissertation focuses on the quantitative relationship between objective measure of public service and citizen survey results. In 2011, I was accepted by the Institute of Local Government in University of Birmingham for my doctoral study.
BA, Public Administration, Sun Yat-Sen University
MA, Public Administration, Sun Yat-Sen University
public sector reform
Revisiting the Relationship between Objective and Subjective Measure of Performance: Further Empirical Evidence from China.