Youlang Zhang, PhD, is Assistant Professor in the School of Public Administration and Policy at Renmin University of China. His research interests include policy process, citizen participation, and bureaucratic politics. His recent publications have appeared in Public Administration Review, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration, Policy Studies Journal, Public Management Review, International Public Management Journal, China Quarterly, and other journals.

• 1. Introduction 2. Explanations for Local Government Innovation in China 3. An Institutional Theory of Local Government Innovativeness 4. The Innovations and Excellence in Chinese Local Governance Awards Programme 5. An Empirical Investigation Based on the IECLG Awards Programme 6. Conclusion. Appendix

"Zhang’s inverse U-shaped relationship between the administrative hierarchy and local innovation contributes to understanding variation across subnational government [… and] the data from the awards offers an interesting glimpse into a period of experimentalism that appears to be ending, or at least changing dramatically."Dr. Jessica Teets, Middlebury College, USA. Review in China Quarterly.