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Performance improvement sits at the heart of the study of public administration. Performance improvement requires performance measurement and relies heavily on effective management of human capital. This paper addresses both performance measurement and management of human capital in the context of China. China introduced its civil service system in 1993 with performance improvement as its ultimate goal. After years of implementation and practices, we attempt to make an overall assessment of the reform with a straightforward question "Has the civil service system improved government performance?" Taking the Education Bureau of Ningbo City as a case, our research design begins with efficiency measurement of the bureau and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is applied as the measurement tool. A comparison of agency performance before and after the introduction of the civil service system is carried out to obtain the basic judgment on the effects of the reform. Then seven contributing factors are ranked on the basis of structured focus-group interviews with civil service reform as one of them. It is found that limited efficiency gain was achieved in the Education Bureau and civil service reform made little impact on agency performance. Some theoretical explanations to those findings are provided. We hope that the study not only provides a case for assessment of the civil service reform against its stated goals, but also sheds light on the use of DEA method in efficiency measurement.

Starting on January 1, 2016, all Chinese couples are allowed to have two children. This marks the end of China's one‐child policy, which has restricted the majority of Chinese families to only one child for the last 35 years. Yet, China's policy change came at least a decade later than it should have. The costly lessons to be learned are not only in politics and public policymaking, but also in how parts of the academic community informed and misinformed public policymaking.

This paper empirically examines gender inequality in benefiting from public education, health care and pension transfers over the lifecycle in China. Based on data from the 2010 wave of China Family Panel Studies and government statistics, we apply the internationally comparable method of National Transfer Account to conduct analyses. The results show that, although public health care and pension transfers are remarkably biased against women at old ages, public education transfers are essentially gender-neutral even at the tertiary education level. Gender inequality among older cohorts is largely a legacy of past occupational and earning privileges for males, and the fragmented design of health insurance and pension programs. With growing female advantage in education and a gradual unification of social security system, the gender gap in public transfers in China is expected to narrow in the coming years.

Performance improvement sits at the heart of the study of public administration. Performance improvement requires performance measurement and relies heavily on effective management of human capital. This paper addresses both performance measurement and management of human capital in the context of China.China introduced its civil service system in 1993 with performance improvement as its ultimate goal. After years of implementation and practices, we attempt to make an overall assessment of the reform with a straightforward question "Has the civil service system improved government performance?"Taking the Education Bureau of Ningbo City as a case, our research design begins with efficiency measurement of the bureau and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is applied as the measurement tool. A comparison of agency performance before and after the introduction of the civil service system is carried out to obtain the basic judgment on the effects of the reform. Then seven contributing factors are ranked on the basis of structured focus-group interviews with civil service reform as one of them. It is found that limited efficiency gain was achieved in the Education Bureau and civil service reform made little impact on agency performance. Some theoretical explanations to those findings are provided. We hope that the study not only provides a case for assessment of the civil service reform against its stated goals, but also sheds light on the use of DEA method in efficiency measurement.

This article examines the fate of rural migrants in Shanghai, China's largest metropolis. Relying on data from a representative survey, it provides a profile of recent rural migrants and analyzes the pattern of occupational and income determination among them. The economic status between migrants and local residents is also compared. The authors show that despite a marked income improvement, rural migrants in Shanghai are still segregated from urban residents and argue that the social divide between urban and rural areas created under socialism has continued to function and may contribute to the formation of a dual society in urban China.