地方官员当地籍贯与信贷资源倾斜

Local Origin of Local Officials and Preference for Credit Resource Allocation

由于比较优势与资源禀赋的差异,地方政府出台的产业政策可能不同于中央政府。文章基于中央政府与地方政府五年规划中产业政策的差异,检验地方官员的当地籍贯如何影响信贷资源配置。研究结果表明,当地方官员具有当地籍贯(任职地与籍贯地或出生地一致)时,受地方五年规划扶持但未受中央五年规划扶持的企业得到了更多的信贷资源。进一步研究发现,这一信贷资源配置倾向在当地特有行业中更加明显,并且地方官员的当地籍贯显著提升了信贷资源对企业业绩的促进作用。上述结果显示,当地籍贯为地方官员带来了地方性知识优势,有助于改善资源配置效率。文章拓展了宏观经济政策与微观企业行为领域的研究视角,对理解地方政府产业政策执行措施、提高资源配置效率有所启示。

Due to the difference of comparative advantage and resource endowment, the industrial policies issued by local governments may differ from those of the central government.With the aim to promote regional economic development, local officials have to decide which type of policy guidelines to follow while allocating regional resources. The judgment of local officials is largely related to their knowledge background. This article examines how the local origin of local officials affects the patterns of credit resource allocation, focusing on the guiding role of central and local five-year working plans. Whether local knowledge(i.e., specific knowledge concerning on specific circumstances) can be taken into consideration is a key factor affecting resource allocation. Local officials with local origin(i.e., working place coincides with his or her hometown or place of birth) have additional channels to collect and acquire information about regional fundamentals, such as resource endowment, industrial structure, enterprise information,personnel expertise, etc. Therefore, they may have local knowledge advantages and their resource allocation strategy tends to differ from those of local officials without local origin. The empirical findings suggest that firms supported by the local five-year plan but not by the central five-year plan obtain more bank loans when local officials have local origin. Further tests find that the above effect is more salient in local-specific industries, while the local origin of local officials has significantly promoted the performance effect of allocated credit resources. The results show that local origin brings comparative advantages of local knowledge to local officials, which enables them to adjust policy enforcement according to the local actual situation and improve the efficiency of credit resource allocation. The findings have some enlightenment for implementing industrial policies and improving the efficiency of credit resource allocation. Firstly, officials with local knowledge should be more involved in the decision-making process of local governments,allocate resources according to the local actual situation, and drive the economic growth of their jurisdiction. Secondly, the organization department should allocate local officials based on the match between the knowledge expertise of officials and the knowledge needs of regional economic development. Through this way the implementation of central industrial policies can be ensured, while local industrial policies are also effectively promoted, both serving to boost the high-quality development of the Chinese economy. Specifically, officials with local knowledge should be preferentially allocated to regions where governance and development rely primarily on local knowledge, so that they can make specific industrial policies suited for local conditions and improve the efficiency of resource allocation.