Book Talk – The Political Regulation Wave: How Local Incentives Shape Air Quality in China

Date:

Wednesday, October 12, 2022

Time:

3:00 PM

4:30 PM

Info

The SCRC welcomes Shiran Victoria Shen, a senior research scholar at Stanford University’s Precourt Institute of Energy, to discuss her new book The Political Regulation Wave: How Local Incentives Shape Air Quality in China (Cambridge University Press, 2022) in conversation with Prof. Andrew Mertha, Director of the SAIS China Research Center. This book proposes innovative theories of the impact of local political incentives on bureaucratic regulation utilizing empirical evidence to compare air pollutant control in China and Mexico. Her research relied on new data and methods across political science, environmental sciences, and engineering to discover the preferential treatment local officials and politicians are incentivized to display towards their superiors’ policies. Shen showcases the inefficiency of ambiguity and incentive-based policy implementation, pinpoints new causes of air pollution, and offers timely solutions.

Event Guests

Shiran Victoria Shen

Senior Research Scholar, Precourt Insitute for Energy, Stanford University

Shiran Victoria Shen is a senior research scholar at Stanford University’s Precourt Institute for Energy, and the lead of a new program on China’s energy and climate issues. She is an interdisciplinary environmental scholar examining the intersections of political science, public policy, environmental sciences, and engineering. Her first book, The Political Regulation Wave: A Case of How Local Incentives Systematically Shape Air Quality in China (Cambridge University Press, 2022) exemplifies her primary research in studying how local politics shape governance surrounding climate and the environment. She is working on a sequel as well as creating another avenue to incorporate and improve political factor representation in integrated assessment models.