Government Fiscal Expenditure Research Articles

Can E-Commerce Policies Drive Common Wealth Levels —— A Study Based on County-Level Data in China, 2012-2020

Based on national county panel data from 2012 to 2020, this study systematically examines the impact of the comprehensive e-commerce into rural areas demonstration project implemented in rural China on promoting the level of common wealth by applying the multi-period double-difference method (DID). It is found that the e-commerce policy significantly enhances the level of common wealth. Further analysis of the impact mechanism shows that the policy effectively promotes the goal of common prosperity by enhancing the level of rural employment. In addition, the positive effect of the e-commerce policy is strengthened by the increase in the level of local government fiscal expenditure, however, the driving effect of the policy is weakened by the higher level of social consumption. Heterogeneity analyses indicate that the policy's promotional effect is particularly significant in the demonstration counties of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. This paper fills the research gap on the relationship between rural e-commerce policy and the level of common wealth, and provides empirical evidence and policy recommendations for related policy formulation.

Evaluating the Impact of Chinese FDI in the Energy Sector on Green GDP Growth: A Spatial Econometric Analysis of MENA Countries

This study analyzes the impact of Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in the energy sector on the green GDP (GGDP) growth of seven Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries based on data from 2009 to 2019. Using panel regression analysis, the study focuses on the effects of FDI, economic development level, population size, energy consumption structure, environmental regulation intensity, government fiscal expenditure, and the KOF Economic Globalization Index on GGDP growth. By comparing fixed-effects and random-effects models and applying the Hausman test to select the most appropriate model, the research indicates that the random-effects model is the most suitable. The results show that FDI, economic development level, and population size have significant positive effects on GGDP, while shifts in energy consumption structure also promote sustainable economic growth. In contrast, environmental regulation intensity and the globalization index have no significant impact on GGDP, suggesting that GGDP growth in MENA countries relies more on internal economic policies and the efficiency of resource allocation.

Digital Sharing of Social Public Resources and Its Influencing Factors: Insight from China

Digital sharing of social public resources (SPRs) is an approach of resource-allocation that can effectively compensate for the limitations of time, space and communication modes in accessing SPRs and achieve the balanced allocation of them. The purpose of this paper is to study the development level of digital sharing of SPRs and its influencing factors. The panel data of 31 Chinese provinces from 2015 to 2020 are collected. A comprehensive evaluation index system for digital sharing of SPRs is constructed to evaluate its development level using the Global Entropy Weight Method (GEWM). And the influencing factors of the sharing level are systematically identified based on the stepwise regression model. The results show that: the development level of digital sharing of SPRs varies significantly among Chinese provinces and cities, but the overall development level is gradually increasing. The government fiscal expenditure capacity, industrial structure, regional economic development level, scientific and technological innovation capacity, and urbanization level can promote the digital sharing of SPRs. The degree of external openness and regional population size have negative effects on the digital sharing of SPRs.

The impact of fiscal expenditure fluctuation on cost asymmetry: Evidence from China

AbstractThis study investigates the relationship between district government fiscal expenditure fluctuation and asymmetric cost behaviour in China. Using the unique manual data sets of Chinese A‐listed firms during the period 2003–2018, we find that cost stickiness is a pervasive phenomenon and that fiscal expenditure fluctuation positively affects cost stickiness. The results also demonstrate this effect is more pronounced when labour input is high and the size of the population is large. In addition, our further analysis indicates that higher social welfare incomes and the higher administrative level of a city can influence these results.

The role of green finance in the construction of new energy system: Evidence from China

Under the rapid development of energy transition and new energy technologies, it is of practical significance to construct a new energy system and explore the empowerment mechanism of green finance on the new energy system. This study conducted empirical research, analyzing the specific theoretical mechanism and transmission path of green finance in constructing a new energy system. The research results indicate that green finance directly promotes the construction of a new energy system, further driving the improvement of technical innovation levels, and facilitating the establishment of more environmental protection institutions, thereby indirectly promoting the construction of a new energy system. Additionally, green finance has a stronger promotion effect under conditions of lower openness levels, economic development levels, urbanization rates, and proportions of the tertiary industry. Moreover, under higher government fiscal expenditure conditions, green finance also generates a greater promotion effect. As the development level of the new energy system increases, the marginal impact of green finance first rises, then stabilizes, and ultimately decreases. Within the empirical analysis framework, this paper provides a novel perspective on the empowerment of green finance, contributing to the construction of a new energy system under new development conditions.

Spatial Distribution Characteristics and Driving Factors of Little Giant Enterprises in China’s Megacity Clusters Based on Random Forest and MGWR

As a representative of potential “hidden champions”, a concept originating in Germany, specialized and innovative Little Giant Enterprises (LGEs) have become exemplary models for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China. These enterprises are regarded as crucial support for realizing the strategy of building a strong manufacturing country and addressing the weaknesses in key industrial areas. This paper begins by examining urban agglomerations, which serve as the main spatial carriers for industrial restructuring and high-quality development in manufacturing. Based on data from LGEs in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) and Pearl River Delta (PRD) urban agglomerations from 2019 to 2023, the study employs the Random Forest (RF) and Multi-scale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR) methods to conduct a comparative analysis of their spatial patterns and influencing factors. The results are as follows: (1) LGEs exhibit spatial clustering in both the YRD and PRD regions. Enterprises in the YRD form a “one-axis-three-core” pattern within a distance of 65 km, while enterprises in the PRD present a “single-axis” pattern within a distance of 30 km, with overall high clustering intensity. (2) The YRD is dominated by traditional manufacturing and supplemented by high-tech services. In contrast, the PRD has a balanced development of high-tech manufacturing and services. Enterprises in different industries are generally characterized by a “multi-point clustering” characteristic, of which the YRD displays a multi-patch distribution and the PRD a point–pole distribution. (3) Factors such as industrial structure, industrial platforms, and logistics levels significantly affect enterprise clustering and exhibit scale effects differences between the two urban clusters. Factors such as industrial platforms, logistics levels, and dependence on foreign trade show positive impacts, while government fiscal expenditure shows a negative impact. Natural geographical location factors exhibit opposite effects in the two regions but are not the primary determinants of enterprise distribution. Each region should leverage its own strengths, improve urban coordination and communication mechanisms within the urban cluster, strengthen the coordination and linkage of the manufacturing industry chain upstream and downstream, and promote high-tech industries, thereby enhancing economic resilience and regional competitiveness.

Local Leaders’ Promotion Pressure and Tourism Development: Evidence From China

The growing importance of tourism management within local governance highlights the imperative role of local leaders’ involvement. However, the understudied influence of promotion pressure, a key determinant of their behavior, remains largely unexplored. This study employs a novel institutional economics approach to investigate the impact of local leaders’ promotion pressure on tourism development in China. We analyze data from 334 prefecture-level cities spanning 1999 to 2019. Our findings reveal a positive correlation between promotion pressure and tourism development. Notably, this effect is amplified in economically advanced cities and those with a lower dependence on tourism. Further analysis using an instrumental variable-based mediation model suggests that promotion pressure shapes tourism development by influencing the structure of local government fiscal expenditure. These findings shed light on the intricate interplay between political incentives, fiscal policy, and the evolution of the tourism industry, offering valuable insights for crafting effective tourism governance strategies.

Do government fiscal expenditure and financial institutions promote high-tech industry development? Evidence from China

ABSTRACT With economic globalization and the rapid progress of economic transformation, developing high-tech industries has become an important way for many emerging countries to achieve sustainable and environmentally friendly economic development category. This research uses the vector error correction model (VECM) to study the effect of fiscal expenditures and financial support on China’s high-tech industry development during 2001–2022. The results show that government fiscal expenditure has a long-term and stable positive relationship with the output of high-tech industries and the number of new high-tech enterprises, while current loans from financial institutions have a negative relationship with such development. Moreover, fiscal expenditure has a greater and deeper impact on high-tech industries than does the loans of financial institutions. In terms of policy insights, our results imply that the government should continue to improve fiscal expenditure and promote financial innovation to help achieve sustainable and balanced development of high-tech industries.

정부 재정지출이 자급률에 미치는 영향 분석

In Korea, the food self-sufficiency rate is one of the most important political issue. The Korean government puts a large budget into increasing the food self-sufficiency rate every year but the performance of the government's efforts is still controversial. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of government fiscal expenditure on the self-sufficiency rate. In this paper, market changes were measured using Equilibrium Displacement Model(EDM). The changes in the self-sufficiency rate and social welfare were also measured using changes in market equilibrium. As a result of the analyses, as government fiscal expenditure increased, the food self-sufficiency rate and social welfare increased, contributing to food security in Korea. Among government fiscal expenditures, increasing proportion of government fiscal expenditure on consumption showed a more positive effect on all markets than increasing proportion of government fiscal expenditure on other types. Therefore, it is necessary to expand policies to increase domestic consumption. The results of this study can be useful to discuss about the more efficient management of government fiscal expenditure for the agricultural sector.

Is renewable energy technology innovation an excellent strategy for reducing climate risk? The case of China

In this era of global warming the importance of climate risk cannot be understated, and finding ways to reduce climate risk is a topic worthy of study. In this paper, we innovatively examine the role of renewable energy technology innovation on climate risk in China. In addition to their linear relationship, we also investigate the asymmetric and heterogeneous impact, detect the impact channels, and find that (1) increased renewable energy technology innovation can effectively alleviate the climate risk situation. Accordingly, the development of renewable energy technology innovation can make a significant contribution to CR abatement. (2) Pronounced impacts of renewable energy technology innovation on climate risk can be observed in the higher quantiles (75th and 90th) of climate risk. (3) Renewable energy technology innovation is a powerful weapon for eradicating climate risk in provinces with a higher level of government fiscal expenditure. And (4) renewable energy technology innovation has an impact on climate risk by facilitating energy consumption efficiency, which is a necessary mediator. These conclusions inspire us to put forward several corresponding policy implications for better climate risk governance and renewable energy technology innovation development.

The Enhancing Effect of Government Cost Accounting Informatization on Fiscal Expenditure Efficiency

Abstract Accounting is an important part of the modern economy and society, and accounting informatization has gradually become the development trend of an accounting system. Government fiscal expenditure efficiency is also significantly affected by accounting automation. The study improves the DEA-BBC model to measure the efficiency of fiscal expenditure and adopts the PSM-DID model to construct the model of the effect of accounting informatization on the efficiency of fiscal expenditure according to the theory of government cost accounting and accounting informatization. The effect of government accounting information technology on fiscal expenditure efficiency is empirically studied. Government cost accounting information is selected as the explanatory variable, fiscal expenditure efficiency is selected as the explanatory variable, and control variables are introduced for regression analysis. The mean value of fiscal expenditure efficiency is 0.743, the minimum value is 0.216, the maximum value is 1.000, and the standard deviation is 0.230. The coefficient of government cost accounting informatization is 0.058 before adding control variables, but it increases to 0.065 after adding control variables. For every 1% decrease in government cost accounting informatization, the proportion of fiscal expenditure, the proportion of education expenditure, medical expenditure share, and social security and employment expenditure share rise by 1.1568, -0.4135, -0.2764, and -0.5011 units, respectively. The higher the government’s financial self-sufficiency and the smaller the government, the more efficient fiscal expenditures.

The Impact of Government Fiscal Expenditure on Sierra Leone’s Economic Growth

The Impact of Government Fiscal Expenditure on Sierra Leone’s Economic Growth

정부 시장격리가 쌀 수급에 미치는 사후영향평가

The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of the government's implementation of the market isolation system related to the Grain Management Act on rice supply and demand and price and the government's fiscal expenditure. To achieve this purpose it was modeled with a structural equation system that reflects the causal relationship between economic variables that conforms to economic theory. In particular, the rice policy analysis model constructed in this study is a ex-post policy assessment model, and the analysis of the impact of government policy changes on the rices in harvest period and lean season before the next harvest by reflecting the price formation process by period in the model is different from previous studies. As a result of the analysis, the market isolation system was found to be effective in raising the selling price of farm households in line with the government's policy purpose. However, it was found that the government's fiscal expenditure increased due to the increase in rice purchase and management cost because of the increase in inventory. Furthermore it was analyzed that the government’s fiscal expenditure efficiency was reduced as the benefit-cost ratio of market isolation implementation was all less than 1. Since 2005, the government has operated a direct payment system and the target price has existed, so there are many limitations to positively evaluate the additional market isolation system. In the future, if the government’s market isolation policy is needed due to rapid price change, it is considered that in-depth research on inventory management and release plans will be needed to increase government fiscal efficiency.

The Economic Impact of Aging on Chinas Public Health: A Short-term Perspective

In today's world, the aging of the population is an absolute trend. The aging of the population is the result of the improvement of the medical level, the decline of the birth rate and the extension of the life expectancy. China is experiencing the largest and fastest population aging process in the world. Population aging has brought huge challenges to the stable operation of China's medical insurance system and put pressure on the Chinese government's fiscal expenditure. This paper constructs a VAR model on population aging, medical insurance expenditure and GDP growth, find that past data have shown that GDP growth and medical insurance expenditure have adverse reactions to the intensification of population aging. In the prediction of the future, the further deepening of population aging will bring challenges to China's economic growth and government finance. Chinese government should adjust the policy on medical insurance expenditure to solve the problem caused by deeper aging, to promote the sustainable development of China's medical insurance.

Does Green Finance Expand China’s Green Development Space? Evidence from the Ecological Environment Improvement Perspective

It is important to explore the intrinsic mechanism of green finance’s role in widening the green development space for China, in order to optimize the structure of green financial development and accelerate the construction of a modernized economic system. Taking ecological environment improvement as a new research perspective, this paper presents the impacts and mechanisms of green finance on the green development space of the economy and society through the fixed-effect model and moderating-effect model, based on panel data from 30 provinces and municipalities in China from 2011 to 2020. The findings show that green finance development in China significantly expands the green development space of the economy and society, and this conclusion did not change after robustness tests such as replacing the main variables, adjusting the study interval, and considering endogeneity. In terms of its mechanism of action, ecological environment improvement plays an important mediating and regulating role in the process of green finance, essentially magnifying the green development space of the economy and society. In terms of a heterogeneity analysis, the effect of green finance on the expansion of the green development space is the largest in the eastern region, followed by the northeastern region, and the smallest in the central and western regions. In addition, the positive effect of green finance is relatively larger in regions with a higher urbanization level, government fiscal expenditure level, foreign investment level, and advanced industrial structure. The main contribution of this paper is to the field of green development, revealing the important role of the ecological benefits of green finance, which can help to achieve high-quality sustainable development in the economy and society.

The Impact of Green Finance on Upgrading the Manufacturing Industry of the Yangtze River Economic Belt Based on the Spatial Econometric Model

China’s economic development has made world-renowned achievements which have subsequently brought serious environmental pollution problems. As a large manufacturing country, the industrial value added in China accounts for nearly 30% of the global share. However, the manufacturing industry lacks competence. Therefore, considering environmental protection issues while promoting manufacturing industry upgrading (MIU) is a critical goal for China at present. By applying panel data from China’s Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2010 to 2019, this paper uses a spatial econometric model to study the effect of green finance (GF) on upgrading (hereafter, upgrading refers to the improvement of the manufacturing structure and the transition toward green manufacturing) the manufacturing industry. This study found that the impact of GF on MIU in the YREB is significantly positive. GF has a good positive spatial spillover effect. Moreover, the high level of urbanization and high freight volume have positive impacts, the impacts of foreign investment and government fiscal expenditure are significantly negative, and the effect of the level of human capital on upgrading is not obvious. Therefore, vigorously developing green finance, optimizing the environment for manufacturing upgrades, and cultivating green and high-quality talents should be the future direction of government policy formulation.

Fiscal support and carbon productivity of agriculture—Empirical evidence from China

In the context of global climate change, improving agricultural carbon productivity is an important channel to cope with climate change, reduce agricultural carbon emissions and maintain agricultural growth. For a long time, agricultural development in China mainly depends on the government's fiscal expenditure. However, does fiscal support helps to promote carbon productivity of agriculture? This question remains to be answered. Using a set of panel data covering 31 provinces and cities from 2003 to 2019, this study empirically explores the impact of agricultural fiscal support on agricultural carbon productivity in China. Benchmark regression results indicate that after controlling other influential factors, regional fiscal expenditure on agricultural has a significantly positive impact on agricultural carbon productivity. In addition, the promotion impacts of fiscal support on agricultural technological innovation and scale operation efficiency are two effective channels by which to help promote agricultural carbon productivity. By using a panel threshold regression model, we find that there exists a nonlinear relationship between fiscal support and agricultural carbon productivity. The input of agricultural machinery and chemical fertilizer are two threshold variables. Further, this causal linkage between fiscal support and agricultural carbon productivity exists differences because of the different levels of agricultural carbon productivity and regions. Our research provides Chinese theoretical basis and practical reference for improvement of agricultural carbon productivity from the perspective of fiscal expenditure.

Has China's OFDI promoted the upgrading of manufacturing structure-- Research based on interprovincial panel model

With the take off of the Chinese economy, more and more enterprises are investing resources in OFDI, and OFDI and its related economic factors have also had a certain impact on the upgrading of the manufacturing industry. This article studies panel models of 31 provinces in China from 2014 to 2019 using relevant data sources such as the National Bureau of Statistics and the Guotai An Database, and explores the impact of OFDI and its related economic factors on the manufacturing structure. Research has found that OFDI and international trade factors can significantly inhibit the upgrading of manufacturing structure; The per capita income level will have a positive impact on the upgrading of the manufacturing industry structure; The impact of FDI and government fiscal expenditure on the upgrading of manufacturing structure is not significant. In view of the above research results, this paper suggests that the government should adopt appropriate policies to guide OFDI in the manufacturing industry, encourage it to focus on technology intensive or capital intensive industry, and avoid its negative impact leading to "hollowing out" of the manufacturing industry; Enterprises should also optimize their business structure, relocate unnecessary or outdated businesses, invest their main resources in local businesses, and focus on technological upgrades to avoid the adverse effects of OFDI.

Impact of China’s Local Government Competition and Environmental Regulation on Total Factor Productivity

In the transition of China’s economy toward high-quality development, it will be increasingly important to coordinate the relationship between local government competition, environmental regulation, and the transformation of the economic growth mode. To explore the impact of local government competition and environmental regulation on total factor productivity (TFP), in this study empirical analysis models were established using panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2001 to 2017. Local government competition was measured from the perspectives of foreign direct investment (FDI), fiscal expenditure, and tax. The results show that local government competition has a positive impact on the improvement in TFP. Taking environmental regulation into consideration, the impact of local government competition on TFP is weakened. Furthermore, under the current intensity of environmental regulation, local government fiscal expenditure competition and tax competition both lead to improvement in TFP, while FDI competition has the opposite effect. This paper explores the heterogeneity of the impact of local government competition and environmental regulation on TFP under different local government competition levels. Under the influence of environmental regulations, local government FDI competition has a negative impact on the improvement in TFP, particularly in “low” FDI competition areas. Local government fiscal expenditure competition has a positive impact on the improvement in TFP, particularly in “low” fiscal expenditure competition areas. The current level of local government tax competition has a negative impact on the improvement in TFP in “high” tax competition areas, whereas it has a positive impact on the improvement in TFP in “low” tax competition areas.

Can anti-corruption induce green technology innovation? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment of China.

Green technology innovation shoulders the dual task of green development and innovation leading. It is an inevitable choice for China to achieve the carbon peak and neutrality goal and promote high-quality economic development by effectively stimulating green innovation vitality and improving green innovation capacity. In this context, from the perspective of institutional quality, this study takes the anti-corruption campaign launched since the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party as a quasi-natural experiment, constructs an intensity difference-in-differences (DID) model, and tests the impact effect and mechanism of the anti-corruption campaign on regional green technology innovation. It is found that the anti-corruption campaign has significantly improved the level of regional green technology innovation. This conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests such as parallel trend test, placebo test, and instrumental variable estimation. The results of mechanism analysis show that the anti-corruption campaign is helpful to increase foreign direct investment and change the government's fiscal expenditure bias, thus promoting the improvement of green technology innovation level. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the promotion effect of anti-corruption campaign on green technology innovation is more significant in eastern and southern regions. At the same time, the lower the degree of government intervention, the greater the protection of intellectual property rights, and the stronger the environmental governance, the greater the promoting effect of the anti-corruption campaign on green technology innovation. Further research shows that the improvement of the level of green technology innovation is conducive to the realization of the "dual control" goal of total and intensity of carbon emissions. This study proves the positive externality of anti-corruption campaign from the perspective of green technology innovation and provides new empirical evidence for the advantageous theory of anti-corruption.