Central–provincial sharing of financial responsibilities for China's social safety-net

YU Hong, WANG Li and ZHAO Zhirong Jerry

Using Chinese provincial panel data from 2004 to 2014, this paper describes the division of fiscal responsibilities in basic social assistance and services (BSAS): China’s social safety-net programme. The results suggest that there has been a recentralization—provinces with weaker economic conditions rely more on central governmental transfers, showing signs of fiscal equalization. The authors did not find any evidence of ethnicity-based preferential treatments.

Keywords: Dynamic panel data analysis; fiscal decentralization; inter-governmental fiscal

relations; social welfare policy.