We provide empirical evidence on the effectiveness of target-based performance evaluation for bureaucrats in the context of the Two Control Zones policy in China. In 2006, the Chinese central government made sulphur dixoide (SO2) emissions cuts a major performance evaluation criterion for...

Researchers have found that the volume of exceptions generated by a continuous auditing system can be overwhelming for an internal audit department to investigate. In this paper, we propose a framework that systematically prioritizes exceptions based on the likelihood of an exception being...

In this paper, we examine a causal relationship between flattening of a government hierarchy and economic performance. Exploiting a novel panel dataset on government reorganization in China from 1999 to 2012, we find that delayering has led to increases in revenue and inter-govermental transfers...

Abstract: A systematic analysis of the emergency management policies helps to discover the existing state and problems of the system, as well as formulate of policy proposals for enhancing the country’s overall emergency response capability. From the perspective of comprehensive emergency...

Traditional carbonate-based electrolytes are not suitable for high voltage lithium metal batteries (LMBs), which seriously hinders the development of high-energy density LMBs. Here, a novel flame retardant fluorine-rich electrolyte (termed FFT) composed of 1.2 M lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF...

Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) have shown growing potential in the applications of ion detection, anti-counterfeiting ink and light-emitting devices. However, the photoluminescence (PL) properties of GQDs will be lost when they interact with some heavy metal ions. Effective strategies to improve...

We used GC/MS assisted with elemental analysis to compare the organic compounds in oil, water and gas phases before and after the reaction, and finally deduced the mechanism of the viscosity reduction of heavy oil through catalytic aquathermolysis. The results indicated that the catalyst could...

At political boundaries, local leaders often have weak incentives to reduce polluting activity because the social costs are borne by downstream neighbors. This paper exploits a natural experiment set in China in which the central government changed the local political promotion criteria and...