Outlook on Development, the central government began to adjust the assessment orientation and pay more attention to people’s livelihood. However, compared to economic growth, the fulfillment period of people’s livelihood welfare is longer, and governance performance is also more difficult to measure, making it difficult to show the incentives to improve people’s well-being.

Based on the progressive practice of local performance appraisal reform since 2006, this paper evaluates the impact of central performance appraisal of local government motivation on economic development and livelihoods by using a staggered differences-in-differences (DID) model. The empirical results show that the reform significantly promotes the efforts of local officials on livelihood, such as education and medical care, while it also restrains the preference for “growth championship” to a certain extent. There is a significant strategy imitation in different jurisdictions between local officials in relation to people’s livelihood governance motivation.

There are “similar but different” responses to central assessments in various regions. The analysis of the mechanism also implies that local officials primarily drive livelihood governance through internal political promotion, external regional competition and fiscal constraints. Regarding its actual effect, in general, the correction of the officials’ governance motivation significantly affects local governments’ decisions to invest in different types of public goods and effectively improve people’s livelihoods in the field of social development.