Author: J. Ma Publisher: Springer ISBN: 0230373070 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 204
Book Description
This book examines how China's decentralization process has affected and will affect the country's macroeconomic performance and the functioning of the market. With an innovative application of game theory, the author develops an analytical framework that can explain the behaviour of the central and local governments under alternative institutional environments. The study also suggests how to establish desirable rules of games in China's political and economic institutions through appropriate reforms.
Author: Jun Ma Publisher: ISBN: Category : Languages : en Pages :
Book Description
January 1995 Decentralization in China has been crucial in stimulating regional economic growth and reform, but local governments have attained de facto control over many policy instruments, seriously weakening the central government's ability to achieve and sustain macroeconomic stability. And in areas where the division of regulatory power is vaguely defined, local governments' protectionist behavior has led to a malfunction in resource allocation. Over the past 15 years, China has gradually moved from a highly centralized to a decentralized system in almost all aspects of economic management. Decentralization has changed the role of each level of government in economic management, and has greatly complicated the relations between levels of government. Ma analyzes three aspects of intergovernmental relations and their impact on macroeconomic management and market development, and suggests the implications for future reform. He addresses three main questions: * How do fiscal relations between the central and local governments affect the central government's ability to use fiscal policy to achieve stabilization and equalization? Localities have controlled effective tax rates and tax bases in two ways: they controlled tax collection by offering tax concessions, and they found ways to shift budgetary funds to extrabudgetary funds, thus avoiding tax-sharing with the central government. As a result, the center has had to resort to ad hoc instruments to influence revenue remittances from local areas, which caused perverse reactions. * How do monetary relations between the two levels of government affect the central bank's ability to control the money supply? In the past 14 years, the economy has overheated several times because of an excessive money supply. Ma argues that blame for this should be assigned not to the central bank, but to the institutional structure of monetary relations between the central and local governments. The main source of trouble is the central government's inability to commit to a preannounced credit policy. * How does the division of regulatory power between the central and local governments affect the functioning of the market system? As the central government relaxed its control over the economy, local governments used the powers transferred to them to restrict market competition. What is needed is a legal framework (including a fair trade commission) that restricts local governments' ability to abuse power. This paper -- a product of the Public Economics Division, Policy Research Department -- is part of a larger effort in the department to develop policies to reform fiscal systems in developing countries.
Author: Mr.Vivek B. Arora Publisher: International Monetary Fund ISBN: 1451934815 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 28
Book Description
This paper provides an overview of recent Chinese reforms to introduce a modern system of fiscal federalism that balances the need for central macroeconomic control with the economic advantages of decentralized government. Following a discussion of the rationale for decentralization, the paper describes the main structural and economic developments in China in this area, including their impact on economic stabilization. The key measures in the 1994 fiscal reforms as well as reform initiatives needed in the future are also discussed.
Author: Timothy J. Conlan Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield ISBN: 0815703635 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 384
Book Description
A Brookings Institution Press and the National Academy of Public Administration publication America's complex system of multi-layered government faces new challenges as a result of rapidly changing economic, technological, and demographic trends. An aging population, economic globalization, and homeland security concerns are among the powerful factors testing the system's capacity and flexibility. Major policy challenges and responses are now overwhelmingly intergovernmental in nature, and as a result, the fortunes of all levels of government are more intertwined and interdependent than ever before. This volume, cosponsored by the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), defines an agenda for improving the performance of America's intergovernmental system. The early chapters present the current state of practice in intergovernmental relations, including discussion of trends toward centralization, devolution, and other power-sharing arrangements. The fiscal underpinnings of the system are analyzed, along with the long-term implications of current trends in financing at all levels. The authors identify the principal tools used to define intergovernmental management–grants, mandates, preemptions—in discussing emerging models and best practices in the design and management of those tools. In tergovernmental Management for the 21st Century applies these crosscutting themes to critical policy areas where intergovernmental management and cooperation are essential, such as homeland security, education, welfare, health care, and the environment. It concludes with an authoritative assessment of the system's capacity to govern, oversee, and improve. Contributors include Jocelyn Johnston (American University), Shelley Metzenbaum (University of Maryland), Richard Nathan (SUNY at Albany), Barry Rabe (University of Michigan), Beryl Radin (American University), Alice Rivlin (Brookings Institution), Ray Sheppach (National Governors Association), Frank Shafroth (George Mason University), Troy Smith (BYU–Hawaii), Carl Stenberg (University of Nor
Author: John Donaldson Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1317205332 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 248
Book Description
How do we understand the evolution of central-local relations in China during the reform period? This book addresses this question by focusing on eight separate issues in which the central-local relationship has been especially salient – government finance, investment control, regional development, administrative zoning, implementation, culture, social welfare and international relations. Each chapter introduces a sector and the way the center and various local governments have shared or divided power over the different periods of China’s reform era. The balance of power is gauged dynamically over time to measure the extent to which one level of government dominates, influences or shares power in making decisions in each of these particular domains, as well as what is likely to occur in the foreseeable future. The authors assess the winners and losers of these changes among key actors in China’s society. The result provides a dynamic view of China’s changing power relations.
Author: Yongnian Zheng Publisher: World Scientific ISBN: 9814477095 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 458
Book Description
This book is the first attempt to conceptualize China's central-local relations from the behavioral perspective. Although China does not have a federalist system of government, the author believes that, with deepening reform and openness, China's central-local relations is increasingly functioning on federalist principles.Federalism as a functioning system in China is under studied. The author defines the political system existing in China as “de facto federalism”, and provides a detailed analysis of its sources and dynamics in the book. The system is mainly driven by two related factors — inter-governmental decentralization and globalization. While economic decentralization since the 1980s has led to the formation of de facto federalism, globalization since the 1990s has accelerated this process and generated increasingly high pressure on the Chinese leadership to institutionalize de facto federalism by various measures of selective recentralization.
Author: Naoyuki Yoshino Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing ISBN: 1786436876 Category : Languages : en Pages : 448
Book Description
Sustainable and inclusive growth in emerging Asian economies requires high levels of public investment in areas such as infrastructure, education, health, and social services. The increasing complexity and regional diversity of these investment needs, together with the trend of democratization, has led to fiscal decentralization being implemented in many Asian economies. This book takes stock of some major issues regarding fiscal decentralization, including expenditure and revenue assignments, transfer programs, and sustainability of local government finances, and develops important findings and policy recommendations.
Author: J. Ma Publisher: Springer ISBN: 0230288316 Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 212
Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive overview and some economic analysis of China's economic reform experiences, particularly those since the late 1980s. It covers many institutional details of key aspects of the Chinese economy, including fiscal and monetary management, financial sector development, state-enterprise reform, international trade, foreign investment, decentralization and regional development. It is argued that while China has achieved a spectacular growth record over the past twenty years, and its reform efforts have successfully laid the foundation of a market-based economic management system, the country continues to face major challenges in sustaining its growth performance.