中国为什么拥有了良好的基础设施?

Why Does China Enjoy So Much Better Physical Infrastructure?

本文在中国的政治经济体制的框架内解释了改革以来,尤其是上世纪90年代以来中国在建设和改善物质基础设施上所取得的显著成就。文章依据现有的文献和省级面板数据,不仅度量了改革以来中国的基础设施的存量变化和地区差距,而且运用GMM方法检验了可解释基础设施投资支出变动模式的重要变量。本文发现,在控制了经济发展水平、金融深化改革以及其他因素之后,地方政府之间在"招商引资"上的标尺竞争和政府治理的转型是解释中国基础设施投资决定的重要因素,这意味着分权、Tiebout竞争、向发展式政府的转型对改进政府基础设施的投资激励是至关重要的。

This paper builds up an analytical framework within which the quicker improvement of infrastructure in China since 1990s is explained. Based on provincial panel data, the authors not only present an evolution of infrastructure spending and a measurement of the aggregate level of infrastructure, but also empirically identify the determinants on infrastructure spending using GMM. The paper finds that, after controlling for level of development, financial depth, and other variables, FDI-driven competition among local governments, and governance are both significant in explaining the growth of spending on infrastructure. This implies that decentralization, Tiebout-type-competition, and governance are all vital to enhancing government＇s incentive to improve infrastructure.