This article explores the nature of China’s land-use rights system, its evolution and impact on resource allocation and local governments’ public finances. In recent decades, the public ownership of land has not hindered the development of a thriving market economy. Since the inception of...

The heavy reliance of Chinese local governments on land-leasing revenues in recent decades has attracted widespread criticism due to its potential risks and problems. This research, using a panel dataset of 280 prefecture-level cities in China from 1999-2009, explores what factors affect Chinese...

Facing a substantial loss of farmland in the reform era, the Chinese central government established a highly centralized land management system in 1998 to guarantee its capacity to meet the domestic food needs. In order to maintain high-speed economic growth, local governments in China made...

This study is the first attempt to examine the determinants of expenditure decentralization at sub-provincial levels in China. The Chinese central government gives detailed guidelines to local governments on public finance, but, ironically, their expenditure assignment is far from being...

This study is the first attempt to examine the determinants of expenditure decentralization at sub-provincial levels in China. The Chinese central government gives detailed guidelines to local governments on public finance, but, ironically, their expenditure assignment is far from being...