About the Event:
Most existing empirical evidence supports the positive links between governance and well-being. Yet exactly how governance quality affects residents’ subjective well-being and the magnitude of direct and indirect paths of impact have not been clearly articulated, particularly at the lower levels of government and in the context of rapid and continuing urbanization in developing countries. In this study, Professor Juan Chen and her team develop government effectiveness, corruption control, and government accountability as essential measures of local governance quality in the context of China’s new-type urbanization. They further link the developed measures to a national household survey conducted in 40 carefully selected sampling sites undergoing rural-urban transition and estimate the impact of local governance quality on residents’ life satisfaction through both direct and indirect paths. Their research contributes to existing literature and policy debates concerning urbanization, governance, and well-being.
About the Speaker:
Juan Chen is a Professor of Social Policy in the Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Professor Chen’s research centers around migration, urbanization, and urban governance; health, mental health, and well-being; help seeking and service use; and social policy and social service system; and survey research. The key issues she addresses are the ways in which structural disadvantages contribute to individual disparities and the means by which such disadvantages can be eliminated through policy and practice interventions. Her recent research project focuses on the impact of local government policies and practices on the ‘in-situ’ urbanization process, which affects the general well-being of formerly rural residents as well as their integration into the various facets of urban life in Mainland China.
This event is part of the 2022-2023 lecture series on “Urbanization, Well-being, and Public Policy: China from Comparative Perspectives” and is co-sponsored by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute.
