This article compares two neighboring underdeveloped counties in southwest China that share many similarities in economic, political and demographic structures but experience divergent levels of social instability. The comparison suggests that, under China's political system and cadre incentive...

China, similar to other countries with multi-level government structure, suffers serious information asymmetry between different levels of governments. Existing studies mostly focus on how the secret information possessed by lower-level governments undermines effective control by upper-level...

Since the late 1970s, China's fiscal system has facilitated the initiation and implementation of the economic reforms and greatly contributed to China's remarkable economic achievements. However, weaknesses of the fiscal system have been exposed that aroused concerns about the weakening of the...

It is widely assumed that authoritarian states tend to use repression to suffocate social conflicts that threaten regime stability. Focusing on the Chinese state's responses to resource conflict, a particular type of social conflict triggered by mineral resource extraction, this research argues...

One symptom of the resource curse, as comparative studies suggest, is that rich mineral resources often contribute to social conflicts and even civil wars, especially in developing countries with weak political institutions. How can resource-rich countries deal with these social conflicts? This...

Minerals and the state-capital-labor triad -- Minerals, capital, and local economic development -- Resource extraction and victimization of labor -- Resources and local state capture -- Resources and local public goods provision -- Coping with the resource curse.

Cross-national opinion surveys reveal that the Chinese regime enjoys perplexingly high level of political trust when compared internationally. However, by tracing multiple surveys over time, this study finds that the trust in the Chinese central government has declined notably since the early...

Since the early 1980s, Chinese local governments have collected significant amount of revenue outside the budgetary system. Fiscal shortage is commonly cited as the main reason for local extra-budgetary finance. However, a panel data analysis on provincial extra-budgetary practices reveals a...

Why do national governments make fiscal transfers to local governments? Existing studies highlight fiscal equity as well as political considerations as prevailing explanations. By examining China's central-provincial fiscal transfers in the post-reform era, this paper argues that both need and...