Political connection, fiscal transfer, and spatial misallocation: Evidence from China

主讲人：段玉婉，中央财经大学国际经济与贸易学院副教授

主持人： （国发院）李力行，席天扬，徐化愚，于航，王轩

               （经院）刘冲

时间：2022年3月18日下午：14:00-15:30

地点：承泽园246教室

Abstract: Intergovernmental fiscal transfers are crucial for local economic development. However, the allocation of these transfers has always been shadowed by concerns of corruption and cronyism, especially in developing countries. This paper combines reduced-form causal evidence with a quantitative spatial model to quantify the welfare impacts of political connection driven allocation of fiscal transfer in China. We observe a significant impact of workplace and alumni ties between local and central officials on the allocation of fiscal resources across regions. The re-allocation effect of political connection improved the national welfare, but led to a larger income inequality across regions, which is against the interregional equalization objection of fiscal transfer. We also investigate the optimal distribution of the fiscal transfer and find that it would increase China’s GDP by 4.1%.

主讲人简介：段玉婉，中央财经大学国际经济与贸易学院副教授，博士生导师，研究领域为经济地理、贸易与环境等，在《Journal of Public Economics》、《Energy Economics》、《Ecological Economics》、《世界经济》等学术期刊发表论文多篇。主持国家自然科学基金青年项目、北京市社会科学基金重点项目等课题；获得中国科学院科技促进发展奖科技贡献二等奖、国际投入产出学会Sir Richard Stone Prize等奖项。