Fifteen years of efforts to promote fiscal decentralization in China have failed to promote economic growth in China's provinces. This finding is surprising in the light of arguments that fiscal decentralization usually promotes provincial or local economic growth.Zhang and Zou use data on China...

In this paper, a micro-founded model dealing with the effects of regional sizing on economic growth is developed. Departing from bigger sizes, reduction involves more efficient public choices because of proximity to individual preferences and needs, but also creates the risk of underestimation...