Abstract^[1]

In recent years，thedevelopment of new public management research emphasizes the governance elements impact on the performance. Public governance structure and tools are important elements of public governance. They all have an significant impact on the public affairs in public sectors，including regulating the relationship between governance departments，the allocation of public resources and public goods，and the final realization of the public interests. China is one the world’s most populous countries，so China’s population issue plays an important role in the social management. From 1980，the issue of gender imbalance brings the consequences of missing women and male marriage squeeze，which seriously affected China’s social and public safety. Public governance of gender imbalance aims at reversing the traditional patriarchal ideas and eliminating gender discrimination. As one of the major issues in the public administration，social development and the achievement of public interests，reflects the Chinese government’s responsibility to fulfill population development strategy and the comprehensive governance of the population problem. After nearly 10 years of governance，the governance of gender imbalance have acquired some initial results. Gender imbalance is not only affect by social development，economic development and other macro factors，but public governance also play an important role. More and more scholars began to study gender imbalance from the perspective of public governance. However，recent studies mainly stay in the qualitative analysis，governance factors decomposition，and policy recommendations of other aspects of governance practices. Although there have been studies to analyze and compare the elements of public governance，the exact mechanism of governance elements is still lack of exploring. Thus，we need to establish the theoretical foundation in public governance research in terms of gender imbalance in our public sector，while both in the study objectives or in research methods needed to be extended and deepened.

Based on the background，firstly，we use the systems engineering analysis methods and strategy，putting forward the concept model of governance structure and governance tool influencing governance performance in public sector through the theoretical analysis. Secondly，combining with the specific research issues of China’s public governance of gender imbalance，we put forward the governance performance framework of governance structure and tools and did the empirical analysis，and used multiple regression models and multi-linear model using the survey “Research Reports for Trends and Variation，Models and Strategies for the Comprehensive Governance of Abnormally High Sex Ratio at Birth at Shaanxi Province”，which was conducted by the Population and Development Research Institute of Xi’an Jiaotong University from November 2009 to May 2010. Finally，we selected the Wugong County in Shaanxi Province as an object case analysis. Using the qualitative analysis，we verified the holistic governance framework of gender imbalance.

The main conclusions and innovation of this paper is as follows：

First，through theliterature review of governance theory，we proposed the governance performance conceptual models from the perspective of governance structure and tools of the public sector. And based on the holistic governance theory，we summarized the holistic governance framework which is constituted by the governance performance，governance structure and tools. It brings a new way of thinking for China’s gender imbalance governance and practice researches.

Second，based on thegovernance structure theory，we present an analysis framework including the governance environment，governance structure and governance performance of China’s gender imbalance. And we found that there is the causality between the governance structure and the performance. Empirical studies have shown that both at the macro and micro level. At the macro level，institutional structures and human resource structure is the major factors. In terms of institutional structure，good financial security and work incentives is a key factor to reduce SRB. In terms of human resource structure，the higher of the proportion of women participation in governance，the better of the SRB decline. At the micro level，organizational structure，institutional structure and human resource structure all have an impact on the governance performance. In terms of organizational structure，organization size and sector participation the major factors. In terms of institutional structure，financial guarantees and the veto system of the implementation for incentives have a significant impact on people’s fertility desire. In terms of human resource structure，education for staff affected the performance. In addition，the cultural environment has a significant impact on governance performance，which means that the more serious of son-preference，the more difficult to carry out the governance of gender imbalance. Meanwhile，in this framework we also find that the process performance has an impact on the results performance at the macro level，the constraint governance performance has more significant effect than guided governance performance.

Third，based on the theory of policy tools，we present an analysis framework including the governance environment，concept of gender equality，governance tools and performance. And we found that there is the causality between the governance tools and the performance. Empirical studies have shown that both at the macro and micro level. At the macro level，social security tools and advocacy tool have a significant impact on the decline of SRB. At the micro level，the behavior of constraint tools and benefit-oriented tools have significant effects on people’s fertility desires. In addition，through the control variable analysis，we found that staff’s concept of gender equality also involved in the effect of governance performance，the more of concept of gender equality，the more conducive governance work. Meanwhile，in this framework we also found that the process performance has an impact on the results performance，but the mechanisms is different from the macro level. The overall process performance has more significant impact on people’s fertility desires，and the guided governance performance is relatively significant.

Fourth，based on the theoretical analysis and empirical research，we also used the qualitative research methods to do a typical case study of public governance of gender imbalance. We chose Wugong County of Shaanxi Province in China’s to do the descriptive and explanatory case study. Through the analysis of gender imbalance governance performance，governance structure and tool of Wugong County，we verified the holistic governance framework of gender imbalance，and affirmed the overall effectiveness of governance performance of Wugong County. Finally，we proposed some policy recommendations.

Keywords：Gender imbalance；Governance；Sex ratio at birth；Governance tool；Governance structure；Governance performance

[1] This work is jointly supported by the Project of Xi’an Jiaotong University and the Ford Foundation.