ABSTRACT
The chapter begins with the conceptual approach used in the study for measuring and assessing the impact of institutions on market development. It provides the empirical case study on the establishment of provincial clean development mechanism (CDM) centers in China to inquire into the following research question: What impacts do the CDM centers have on the CDM market development in their province? For initiating and steering new markets, so-called market facilitation institutions, like the Provincial CDM centers, can become crucial catalysts. After several CDM capacity development programs had assisted China to set up its institutional CDM structure and after positive CDM project examples from other countries had raised China's awareness of its own CDM potential, the country quickly caught up and soon became one of the top CDM host countries. The methods of awareness creation used by the CDM centers are very similar, but differ in their timing and scope.
