Analysis of Provincial Policies on the Development of Prefabricated Construction in China

Currently, China has launched an ambitious governmental initiative to promote the development of prefabricated construction (PC). As the target of PC development has been allocated to lower-level government, the responsibility for PC development rests at the provincial level. Therefore, provincial policies are extremely crucial for the development of PC. Despite this, few studies have been conducted to examine the role of provincial policies in promoting the development of PC. With the aim of filling this knowledge gap, a comprehensive analysis of provincial policies on the development of PC was conducted in this study. Firstly, 443 provincial policies for PC development issued by 31 regions were collected and divided into different types according to the policy instrument framework, including environment instruments, demand instruments and supply instruments. By using the approach of content analysis, the spatial and temporal distribution of provincial policies was explored, as well as the similarities and differences in different regions. The results indicate that China initially developed a policy system for PC development with the characteristics of multiple levels, multiple stakeholders and multiple instruments; meanwhile, provincial policy relies heavily on environmental instruments, and the use of supply and demand instruments is grossly inadequate. The existing problems of each policy instrument for PC development have been discussed, and corresponding countermeasures have been put forward. The research findings provide valuable information for policy adjustments in the future and shed light on the effective delivery of policies to promote the development of PC in developing countries.

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