Hope Of People's Livelihood

Economic development policies are significantly influenced by the leaders of the governments, and their cognition is one of the critical factors that determine their behaviors. On the condition that majors are strictly divided in the higher education system of China, this article, based on the provincial panel data from1987to2006in China, studies the influence of the higher education background of main provincial leaders on the local fiscal structure. It finds that in contrast to a science-background Secretary of a CPC committee of a province, those art-background ones would probably increase expenditures on culture, education, science and public health by one percentage point and cut expenditures on infrastructure in accord, while such effects don’t happen to the provincial governors. This finding means that education can change the regional fiscal structure and the way of economic development via changing government officials’behavior.