The economic costs of award revocation: evidence from the National Civilized City Award campaign

Despite the prevalence of revocation policies for various awards, their effects are rarely measured. This paper examines the impact of award revocation on local economic performance by exploiting the revocation of China’s National Civilized City Awards (NCCA). Using a difference-in-differences design, we compare changes in GDP per capita between cities whose NCCA was revoked and those that retained the award. The results show that award revocation leads to a significant deterioration in economic outcomes for prefecture-level cities. Importantly, these effects arise only when the revocation is publicly disclosed, highlighting the central role of information disclosure in transmitting the reputational shock. Our findings provide clear evidence that symbolic sanctions can generate real economic consequences. From a policy perspective, the results suggest that award programmes should incorporate clear and publicly disclosed revocation mechanisms to preserve their credibility and incentive effects.