Formal Rules and Their Informal Operation: An Empirical Analysis of Energy Conservation and Pollutant Emission Control Targets of China’s 11th Five-Year Plan

Abstract

The Chinese government has been promulgating the Five-Year Plan (FYP) for economic and social development every five years since 1953. Central planning, which used to dominate the economic and social life of the general public in China for nearly 30 years since 1949, has been regarded as the predominant character of socialism. Since China launched the Reform and Opening Policy in 1978, the role of planning has been converted from micro-control of individual enterprises to macroeconomic management. Meanwhile, with consciousness of social justice increasingly aroused, issues of environment, natural resources, and social welfare, take more words than ever in the recently promulgated 11th FYP which was approved by the National People’s Congress (NPC) on March 14, 2006.