The official banking institutions for rural China are Rural Credit Cooperatives (RCCs). Although these co-ops are mandated to support agricultural development among farm households, since 1980 half of RCC loans have gone to small and medium-sized industrial enterprises located in, and managed...

Ample empirical evidence suggests that Rural Credit Cooperatives (RCCs), which are the core credit institutions in rural China, are not accountable to their member households. This article argues that this conundrum can be explained by an institutional analysis of the credit cooperatives using...

Despite the fact that the Rural Credit Cooperatives are the only formal credit providers to millions of households in rural China, empirical evidence suggests that they hardly serve the interests of member households. This study examines the extent to which the recent institutional reform have...

Rural credit cooperatives have become increasingly commercialized over the last decade. However, this does not spell the end of cooperative finance in rural China. Various new cooperative credit organizations have sprung up in recent years with endorsement from the central and local governments....

This paper sheds light on the ways in which township governments had mobilized resources from local financial institutions, and how failure to repay many of these loans had given rise to sizable local government debt. Mobilization of resources was done through loans to collective enterprises...

Local governments, rural credit and regional development -- The rural financial system and rural development in China -- The design of China's rural credit institutions -- The implications of cadre evaluation and fiscal system for local government behavior -- Diverging pathways to prosperity :...