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Is Performance Management Reform Living up to its Expectations? An Analysis of Public Management Reform in China’s Guangdong Province

Abstract Performance management has a long tradition in China, but questions remain as to its effectiveness. This article presents the results of a comparative time-series analysis that assessed the impact of performance management reform in the province of Guangdong, China, on two outcomes of interest—improved citizen satisfaction with government performance and improved government financial performance. The study used data survey data on citizen satisfaction from the Government Performance Evaluation Center in China and financial data from the statistical yearbook and the fiscal yearbook from 2010 to 2014. This coincides with two periods of development of performance management in China: (1) before 2012, when efforts focused on economic development followed by an emphasis on citizen-oriented and sustainable government services; and (2) between 2012 and 2014, when pilot programs of performance management systems were implemented. A difference-in-differences test comparing the outcome variables before and after the pilot project in Guangdong suggests that overall performance management reform had a positive impact on citizen satisfaction but it had mixed results on financial performance in the county-level jurisdictions that implemented the pilot program.