Abstract

Although some emerging research has recognized the significance of the network perspective in policy diffusion, our understanding of how the policy network structure affects policy diffusion’s process and performance is limited. This article uses the method of social network analysis, focusing on network structure indicators, to investigate the impact of centrality and structural holes in the municipal leadership transfer networks on policy diffusion’s performance. Furthermore, from the cross-layer network perspective, we assume that provincial leadership transfer networks’ centrality and structural holes moderate the above relationship. Employing the panel data from an environmental field of 292 cities in China from 2003 to 2018, we find the relationship in the form of an inverted U-shape between centrality, structural holes in the municipal leadership transfer networks and the diffusion performance of environmental policies. High levels of centrality and structural holes in the provincial leadership transfer networks steepen the double inverted U-shaped relationship.