State versus Market: China's Infrastructure Investment

Shuoge Qian, Hong Ru and Wei Xiong

No 33725, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Amid rising global interest in state interventions, this paper examines how China’s infrastructure investments—a key macroeconomic policy tool—affect firm productivity. We focus on a policy that encourages regional governments to improve market conditions for private enterprises. Our analysis shows that a better market environment amplifies infrastructure investment spillovers. However, the overall impact remains neutral or negative despite greater gains in industries with improved market access. These findings highlight the complex interplay between state intervention and market forces, raising concerns about the effectiveness of infrastructure investments in sustaining growth, especially in regions with weak market institutions.

JEL-codes: H54 O10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna
Note: CF DEV EFG PE
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w33725.pdf (application/pdf)
Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html. Free access is also available to older working papers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33725

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w33725
The price is Paper copy available by mail.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().