Abstract: Taking the human, financial and material management pilot reforms in the local audit departments under the provincial level carried out in China in 2015 as the quasi-natural experiment, this paper makes use of the sample data from 285 cities from 2006 to 2017 to empirically examine the impact of audit management system reform on urban total factor productivity growth and the mediating effect of government governance efficiency between the two. The findings show that audit management system reform is conducive to promoting the growth of urban total factor productivity, and that the reform of the audit management system can improve the urban total factor productivity through improving the anti-corruption efforts of the governments. The results of the heterogeneity test show that the promotion effect of the audit system reform on the urban total factor productivity is more significant in the cities of the eastern region and in the non-capital cities.

Key words: government governance efficiency, audit management system, total factor productivity