Understanding the efficiency of "political attention and governance action" on marine waste discharge in the coastal provinces in China

This study examines the "black box" of the policy process by evaluating the efficiency of "political attention and governance action" as a two-stage continuum and investigating the influencing factors in marine waste discharge governance. The results of empirical analysis in the 11 Chinese coastal provincial regions suggest that the overall efficiency fluctuated from 1999 to 2016 with a minor reduction. The developed provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Guangdong have low efficiency in overall evaluation. In the first stage, the transferring efficiency from political attention to actions does not change considerably despite fluctuations in 2012-2016. The second-stage efficiency, or the efficiency of the governance actions, has been declining since 2008 except for a brief spike in 2014. There exists a feedback impact between the two stages. Economic competition, as measured by the average GDP of neighbouring provinces, has more negative impacts on the first-stage efficiency.