Policy reinvention and policy performance within vertical authority structures—evidence from China’s rural revitalization policy

Policy reinvention has received substantial scholarly attention. However, little is known about how reinvention at different government levels influences policy implementation outcomes. This study examines the dynamics of multilevel policy reinvention within vertical authority structures. The findings demonstrate that while municipal policy reinvention positively contributes to policy outcomes, excessive policy reinvention at the provincial level can impede municipal policy performance. Contrary to our expectation, faster provincial adoption weakens the positive relationship between municipal reinvention and policy performance. An exploratory typological analysis further shows that conservative reinvention is associated with significantly better outcomes than prudent reinvention. Robustness analyses confirm the stability of these theoretical claims. These findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of intergovernmental policy processes and offer practical insights into achieving better alignment between policy reinvention efforts across government tiers and policy implementation performance.