In China, local public debt issuance between 2006 and 2013 crowded out investment by private manufacturing firms by tightening their funding constraints, while it did not affect state-owned and foreign firms. Using novel data for local public debt issuance, we establish this result in three...

In November 2008, China announced a RMB4trn package of economic stimulus measures that also dealt with how it would be funded. As a result, in March 2009, the National People's Congress (China's parliament), with the approval of the central government, authorized the Ministry of Finance to issue...

Local governments play a significant role in China's public finance and fiscal operations. The size of local government debt has grown rapidly over the past years, exceeding the stock of sovereign debt in China. How does this development compare to other countries and what policies can foster...