The Convergence Characteristlics And Optimal Decisions Of Chinese Local Government Scale From The Perspective Of Politlical Championships

Since the reform and opening up,the Chinese economy has achieved world-renowned achievements and has been hailed as a "Chinese miracle" by the world.At the same time as the economy is taking off,the fiscal scale of Chinese local governments has hit record highs.In 1978,the total fiscal expenditure was 112.209 billion yuan.By 2017,the total expenditure of local governments in China had reached 1,732.834 billion yuan,an increase of about 154 times.Even if the price factor was removed,the growth of government fiscal expenditure was extremely rapid.In the case of the government's fiscal expenditure expansion is so severe,the growth rate of local government is quite different.The scale of government expansion in economically developed regions is slow and the economically impoverished regions are relatively fast.Based on the above background,this paper examines the characteristics of local government scale change from the convergence of government scale,and finds that the scale of local government has a convergence characteristic at the municipal level.The government scale is slower,and the government scale is relatively small.The size of its government is growing rapidly.At the same time,the optimal size of the local government was estimated,and the difference between the actual government size and the optimal government scale was interpreted in conjunction with the promotion tournament.Finally,the optimization path of local government scale is discussed.This article specifically includes the following six chapters:Chapter One Introduction.In the context of the continued growth of the government,this chapter explores some of the characteristics of government scale changes and raises the issues we want to study.It is believed that under the "Chinese-style decentralization",the scale of local government is convergent,and it is proposed to measure the optimal scale of local government in China.This paper briefly analyzes the views of different economists on the role of the government.On this basis,it further explains the important practical significance of studying the scale of the best local government.In addition,the research methods of the thesis are also given,and the shortcomings and innovations of the thesis are explained.The second chapter is the theoretical basis and concept description.In this chapter,the paper introduces the relevant concepts that need to be used,and is described in conjunction with the literature.This chapter sorts out the literature describing the connotation of government scale,and expounds the theoretical connotation of government scale.It thinks that the government scale is divided into internal scale and external scale,and also determines the external scale of the government that we need to study.It also gives different scholars the definition of government scale and measurement methods.This chapter also discusses factors that affect the size of the government,such as economic growth,fiscal decentralization,and so on.In the section of convergence,the related concepts of convergence are explained,and the reasons for examining the characteristics of government scale convergence are given.At the same time,the convergence characteristics of local government scale are explained from both theoretical and practical aspects.For the calculation of the optimal government scale,this chapter derives the corresponding econometric model according to Barro's rule,and combs the previous literature,and combines China's specific political and economic system-promotion championship and Armey curve to the optimal local government scale and actual place.The size of the government was analyzed.Chapter 3,variable descriptions and data sources.This chapter mainly explains the variables that need to be applied in the empirical part and the corresponding data sources.It is mainly divided into two parts:the characteristics of local government scale convergence and the optimal government scale.The fourth chapter is empirical research.In this chapter,we empirically examine the convergence of local government scales and measure the optimal size of local governments in China.In the investigation of the convergence of local governments,we found that at the city level,there is convergence in the size of the Chinese government.In addition,the convergence of government scale will be nonlinear due to the size of the government,and the larger the government,The faster it converges.At the same time,we calculated that in the period of 1998-2014,the optimal government scale from the perspective of economic growth is about 9.4%,and the optimal government scale in terms of economic development is 17%,combined with the promotion mechanism of the promotion tournament.The deviation between the actual government size and the optimal government size is explained.The fifth chapter is the governance path of local government scale optimization.In this part,we mainly provide some policy recommendations for the optimization of local government scale and the implementation of the reform of the administrative system.The paper elaborated on three aspects:changing the local government administrative concept,rationalizing government functions and improving financial constraints.Finally,the core ideas of the thesis are summarized and the future research directions are prospected.