Dr. Xinsheng Liu, Research Scientist at the Institute for Science, Technology, and Public Policy (ISTPP), presented a paper entitled “Local Air Pollution and Political Trust in China” at the 2020 Annual Conference of the Southern Political Science Association in San Juan, Puerto Rico, January 9-11, 2020.
The paper was coauthored with Kent Portney (ISTPP Director), Ren Mu (ISTPP Fellow), and Taiping Ding (ISTPP Predoctoral Fellow and Doctoral Candidate, Department of Public Administration, Sun Yat-sen University). The authors theoretically and empirically investigate the links between air quality and citizens’ trust in government. Using local air quality data and public opinion survey data, they find that local air pollution significantly lessens Chinese citizens’ political trust.
