In the past two decades, controversial evidence has been produced supporting the case for local protectionism in China. This paper overviews the most important contributions and presents a new approach which applies spatial econometrics on prefectural-level data. The main advantage of this...

In the past two decades, controversial evidence has been produced supporting the case for local protectionism in China. This paper overviews the most important contributions and presents a new approach which applies spatial econometrics on prefectural-level data. The main advantage of this...

Contents: 1. Introduction -- 2. Fiscal federalism -- 3. Bureaucratic incentives -- 4. Information, monitoring and control -- 5. The local state -- 6. Logic of divergence -- 7. Conclusion -- References -- Index.