| 讲座简介： | We study the effect of the Great Western Development Project, a major regional place-based policy in China, on the provision of local public services. Using geo-coded grid-level data and a spatial discontinuity design, we find that the GWDP policy has hindered the delivery of public educational and health services in western China. The identified effects are highly visible in northern and rural areas relative to southern and urban areas, yielding undesirable distributional consequences. We further show that the reduction in public service provision can be attributed to the rising fiscal pressure from regional tax cuts, infrastructure-biased transition of government spending, increased administrative costs and misuse of public funds. |
