Does China’s real-name system improve or reduce residents’ willingness to participate in environmental impact assessments?

ABSTRACT China requires residents to provide real names and identification for participation in environmental impact assessments (EIAs). This study examines residents’ willingness to participate in EIAs based on the real-name system. The results of a questionnaire survey in Southwest China showed that after adopting the real-name system, the residents’ willingness to participate in EIAs was reduced. When there was no real-name system, 78.97% of the residents were willing or very willing to participate in EIAs. However, after the implementation of the real-name system, only 40.85% of the residents were willing or very willing to participate in EIAs. The results also indicated that after implementation of the real-name system, the residents’ willingness to participate in EIAs was positively correlated with privacy protection and government trust factors.