Study On The Impact Of Province-managing-county Reform On The Quality Of County’s Economic Growth

By 2020,The province-managing-county reform has gone through 16 years.In the past 16 years,the economy of the counties directly under the provincial government has developed rapidly,and its growth rate has been maintained above the average level of the counties in the province.The counties directly under the provincial government have become the leading demonstration areas for the reform and development of the county economy,and also play a vanguard and exemplary role in promoting the high-quality growth of the county economy.However,the current high-speed growth mode,which relies on high investment and high consumption for a long time,also leaves many problems,which greatly reduces the quality of economic growth.As the most stable grass-roots administrative unit,county is the main driving force to promote the coordinated development of regional economy.The quality of county-level economic growth has a direct impact on the progress of the transformation of the whole Chinese economy to a high-quality development stage.Therefore,it is urgent to improve the quality of county-level economic growth.In the existing studies,many scholars have reached an agreement on the promotion of economic growth by the province-managing-county reform,but its impact on the quality of regional economic growth is not clear enough.While the reform ensures the rapid economic growth,does it also have a positive impact on the quality of economic growth? Does the competition of local government based on the dual pressure of politics and economy purify the quality of economic growth? What kind of impact will the joint effect of the two have on the quality of economic growth? Further verification is needed.Therefore,this paper attempts to make up for the lack of existing research,taking the province-managing-county reform as a quasi natural experiment,through the construction of the double difference model(did)and the intermediary effect model,focusing on the analysis of the impact mechanism of the reform on the quality of economic growth through the double competitive incentives of the local government.The results show that province-managing-county reform is conducive to improving the quality of county economic growth on the whole,which is still true after many robustness tests such as placebo test,PSM-DID,and sub sample regression;From the perspective of dynamic effect analysis,the impact of that province-managing-county reform on the quality of county economic growth showed a gradual upward trend in the first seven years after the reform,and reached the highest value in the seventh year after the reform.Since then,the positive effect of the reform on the quality of County economic growth has gradually declined.From the perspective of intermediary influence mechanism,the two paths of promoting the quality of county economic growth through vertical and horizontal financial competition incentives have been confirmed.This paper also finds that the farther the county is from the city center,the higher the proportion of fiscal expenditure in the city,the weaker the effect of reform on the quality of regional economic growth.It may even hinder the improvement of the quality of economic growth.Finally,based on the results of empirical analysis,this paper puts forward some policy suggestions,such as continuing to deepen the province-managing-county reform,gradually building the development model of city-county horizontal division and cooperation,and deeply expanding the scope of financial power of county government,so as to give full play to the role of the province-managing-county reform in promoting the quality of economic growth and help China’s economy transform to high-quality economic development as soon as possible.