The Internet has played important roles in driving political changes around the world. Why does it help to topple political regimes in some places but improve the quality of governance in others? We found Internet usage in general leads to citizens’ distrust in political institutions. Different political environments, however, can condition such trust-eroding impacts of the Internet in significantly different ways. A democracy enables citizens to connect their online behaviors and offline expression and organization, releasing political discontent while facilitating state–society communication. On the contrary, by restricting various forms of off-line expression, authoritarian regimes drive Internet-active citizens' discontent and distrust to higher levels. We use the World Values Survey data to establish these different mechanisms across democracies and authoritarian systems. Entropy balancing shows our findings to be highly robust.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are among the most toxic air pollutants in China. However, because there are unsubstantial data on indoor and outdoor particulate PAHs, efforts in assessing inhalation exposure and cancer risk to PAHs are limited in China. This study measured 12 individual PAHs in indoor and outdoor environments at 36 homes during the non‐heating period and heating period in 2009. Indoor PAH concentrations were comparable with outdoor environments in the non‐heating period, but were lower in the heating period. The average indoor/outdoor ratios in both sampling periods were lower than 1, while the ratios in the non‐heating period were higher than those in the heating period. Correlation analysis and coefficient of divergence also verified the difference between indoor and outdoor PAHs, which could be caused by high ventilation in the non‐heating period. To support this conclusion, linear and robust regressions were used to estimate the infiltration factor to compare outdoor PAHs to indoor PAHs. The calculated infiltration factors obtained by the two models were similar in the non‐heating period but varied greatly in the heating period, which may have been caused by the influence of ventilation. Potential sources were distinguished using a diagnostic ratio and a mixture of coal combustion and traffic emission, which are major sources of PAHs.

This study integrates institutional and empirical analyses to investigate the intricate policies that regulate local government debt in China. It finds that, within a remarkably short period, China has skilfully incorporated local government debt into the local budget management system, thereby transforming it from a mere transaction between local governments and credit agencies to an intergovernmental fiscal relations framework. The study also establishes that the pivotal debt-regulating policies are more geared towards prioritizing the cost of debt over its scale. Official documents, statistical data, and in-depth interviews provide evidence to support these findings. Drawing on an analysis of county-level panel data in Sichuan Province, this study identifies two main effects of these policies. Primarily, the cost of local general debt may trigger the notorious soft budget constraint, thereby incentivizing county-level governments to depend more heavily on superior transfer payments. Additionally, the fiscal consolidation policy, which focuses on the cost of local special debt, may lower the debt ratio. However, it also has the unintended consequence of bolstering the local government’s reliance on land finance.