Analysis of the Payoff Interplay between Local Project Officers and Village Cadres during Rural Development Project Evaluation

This paper examines the payoff interplay between multiple stakeholders during rural development project evaluation. Drawing from the game theory, it analyzes the factors that influence the payoffs of local project officers and village cadres and the strategy they adopt by building mathematical models for the payoffs of different stakeholders and seeking the Nash-Equilibrium solution and the analytical equilibrium solution. It concludes with strategic choices for local project officers and village cadres and reveals the collusion between them for benefits, which hampers the evaluation on project quality and undermines the interests of the sponsors and the beneficiaries of the projects.