Evaluation of central and local economic policies on hawkers in the post-epidemic era and suggestions for improvement

In response to the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 epidemic, the Chinese government has released a series of policies to encourage the hawker economy. The objective of the study is to provide references for the establishment and improvement of China’s hawker economic policy. In this paper, a sample of 105 hawker economy policies from 2020 to 2022 is selected, and the policy texts are analyzed and evaluated by constructing a three-dimensional analysis framework of “tool-subject-effectiveness”, using content analysis and the PMC index model. The results of the study revealed that the development of central and local policy tools is uneven; central government subjects focus on top-level design, while local government subjects focus on practice; and the policies generally show good effectiveness. Based on this, the paper put forward relevant suggestions.