Funding China's Urban Infrastructure: Revenue Structure and Financing Approaches. Research Report

摘要

This report concentrates on the revenue structure and financing approaches of China's urban infrastructure. First, this paper briefly reviews the history and contemporary literatures. Second, it provides a detailed discussion on the national trends and regional patterns of urban infrastructure funding and financing. Third, beyond the description, it also tries to frame the research question in five theoretical dimensions. The study of China's urban infrastructure funding and financing is very important because of the insufficiency of revenue sources and the significance of urban infrastructure in economic growth. With the rapid growth of urbanization and in China's economy, higher-quality urban infrastructure has become increasingly important. Not only does it affect the welfare of the citizens but it also influences the progress of the society as a whole. Much literature has proved the positive relationship between economic growth and urban infrastructure. However, compared to the high growth rate of the economy and population, the provision of urban infrastructure is seemingly insufficient. Several major infrastructure projects, such as paved local roads and streets, grew at a much slower pace after the economic reform (1978) as opposed to before. One of the most important reasons for the slower infrastructure growth is low government spending on infrastructure, which is caused by limited resources of urban infrastructure funding. Therefore, innovative mechanisms of funding are needed to provide a solid foundation for economic growth.