Qing He, Junyi Liu, Chang Xue (薛畅), Shaojie Zhou

Publication:

China Economic Review

Abstract:

We analyze the impact of the central-local bureaucratic relation on the synchronization of regional economic growth in China using pairwise panel data of 31 provincial-level administrative units (465 pairs) from 1993 to 2014. We identify a significant positive impact of bureaucratic integration (top provincial-level government officials who have served in the central government) on regional output synchronization. Results from the estimations of instrumental variable, generalized method of moments, and sub-samples remain robust. However, bureaucratic rotation (top provincial-level government officials with prior working experience in other province) has no effects on regional output synchronization.