Much attention has been paid to the effects of government performance, satisfaction, and other determinants on trust in government, a key component of government credibility. Despite their importance in explanations of trust in government in public service, relatively little is known regarding mechanisms through which trust in government influences perception of government effectiveness, a concept used to evaluate the extent to which government performance is effective, and citizen satisfaction in public health, an important part of public service. With the advent of the era of critical citizens, it is important to explore how their development can be fostered, and especially whether their development can be boosted by government credibility. Based on the evolvement of public management theory and practice and examination of the practice of how government effectiveness, citizen satisfaction, and government credibility interact, a people-centered way previous studies rarely adopted is used to measure the key variables. Expanding the measurement of Government effectiveness from macro to micro and analyzing original survey data collected from 31 provincial capital cities in mainland China, this paper examines to what extent, if any, government effectiveness and government credibility matters for citizen satisfaction. The results demonstrate that government effectiveness exerts positive and significant effects on citizen satisfaction and government credibility plays a moderate role in the relationship in public health.
 

government effectiveness; citizen satisfaction; government credibility; public health; structural equation modeling