Information transparency,monitoring, and incentives under decentralization: Evidence from China's fiscal reform of “province managing county”

Monitoring is deemed crucial for the incentivization of a decentralized organization, but its function relies on information transparency between the central authority and the delegated individuals. We test this hypothesis by considering changes in the fiscal behavior of Chinese county governments following an exogenous fiscal reform in 2004/2005 that removed information obstacles between provinces and counties. Employing data on 590 Chinese counties from 2000 to 2009, we find that counties in the reform provinces adopt a more proactive fiscal policy after the reform, suggesting that they become more incentivized in the political competition for economic growth. Such effects are stronger in counties with fewer competing peers and counties with either high or low ranks in the records of economic growth among peers. The increase in counties' productive spending leads to higher economic growth in later years.     

Users' perspectives on decentralized rural water services in Tanzania

This article examines the impact of decentralization reforms on improving access to domestic water supply in the rural districts of Kondoa and Kongwa, Tanzania, using a users' and a gender perspective. The article addresses the question whether and to what extent the delivery of gender-sensitive water services to rural households improved after the reforms. Household- and village-level data were obtained through a household survey and qualitative methods. The findings show an increase of the proportion of households using improved sources of domestic water between 2002 and 2011. However, more than half of users still travel over a kilometre and use more than an hour to collect water in the dry season. Despite the increased proportion of women in water management committees, the outcomes of these decentralized arrangements differ for men and women. Overall, the reforms have produced contradictory effects by improving access to water supply for some users, and creating or reinforcing existing inter- and intra-village inequalities.     

Executives, Legislatures, and Decentralization

This article considers the role of executives and legislatures in authoring decentralizing legislation to study the type of decentralization each sought to achieve. I find that differences across branches are more significant than differences across political parties. The executive played a significant role in the process of decentralization emphasizing administrative forms of decentralization. Congressional efforts to write laws, on the contrary, focused on the political aspects. Thus, the involvement of both branches in policymaking contributed to the multidimensional form and high degree of decentralization in Colombia.     

差异分权与多元碎化:大都市边缘地区城镇化空间模式研究——基于武汉市蔡甸区的实证

大都市边缘地区是大都市经济增长与空间拓展的主要地域,也是分权化治理最为复杂的区域。大都市边缘地区往往针对不同主体采取不同模式的分权化来调整其空间治理结构以适应发展需求。本文构建从分权化治理到城镇化空间的逻辑框架,从大都市边缘地区"差异分权"的空间治理格局入手,落脚在"多元碎化"的城镇化空间模式上,进而对从空间治理的"差异分权"到城镇化空间模式的"多元碎化"间的制度逻辑进行了解析,认为差异分权格局是当前大都市区边缘地区城镇化空间模式多元碎化的直接诱因,因此新型城镇化迫切需要从治理结构上予以破解。     

Barrio resurgence in Buenos Aires: Local autonomy claims amid state-sponsored transnationalism

This paper argues that observing neighborhood movements through the lens of territorial state restructuring holds theoretical promise. Contemporary struggles over municipal decentralization need to be located within broader state re-scaling processes. Seeking to contribute a Latin American perspective to the largely Anglo-American field of urban neoliberalization research, this study engages with the emergence of local autonomy claims in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Middle-class activists and organizations advanced such claims against the background of thorough transnationalism, in what may be interpreted as a localist political reaction to the socio-spatial consequences of urban and state restructuring. Field evidence is used to assess the ultimate political efficacy and democratic implications of their political agency, particularly in what concerns municipal decentralization. It is argued that curtailing the empowerment of barrio districts were the following conditions: mayoral opposition to communal reforms; ongoing cross-scalar tensions between the city and national government; and the barrio-centric issue framings of activists, which hampered social recruitment in an increasingly heterogeneous and transnationalized urban space.     

城市空间集中与分散的哲学透视

城市空间是一种处在对立统一运动中的矛盾复合体。集中与分散的相互关系作为城市空间中对立统一的两面,构成了城市空间演化的基本矛盾。它们的对立与统一成为城市空间发展的最本质的运动。文章以哲学的方法论透视了集中与分散的概念,讨论了集中与分散的学术论争及其背后城市发展的轨迹,指出了集中与分散的机制特点以及一体化趋势,得出了集中与分散是城市空间演化中的基本表现,是考察城市空间运动的一个基本视角的结论。文章通过深入剖析集中主义与分散主义不同的发展条件与背景,揭示了城市空间内部集中与分散的关系以及空间机理,强调据此有助于从中了解与把握城市空间演化的规律,有利于指导我国城市发展的实践。     

京津冀一体化背景下北京制造业时空演化特征及疏解方向

京津冀协同发展大背景下,北京市制造业转型升级和空间布局调整面临新的挑战。本文基于微观企业数据,采用偏离-份额模型剖析了1996-2010年北京市制造业发展的时空演化特征,基于空间偏离-份额模型,提出京津冀协同发展背景下,未来北京不同功能区制造业疏解方向。研究发现,从功能区层面来讲,北京市制造业由首都功能核心区向城市功能拓展区、城市发展新区以及生态涵养发展区渐次外迁,在此过程中高新技术产业、机械与装备制造业呈集聚发展态势,都市型工业近年来有所回迁,其余制造业逐渐退出北京市。在此基础上,以京津冀协同发展纲要为指导,结合京津冀都市圈各城市产业功能定位和集聚区建设分析了北京市不同功能区制造业未来疏解策略与方向。     

90年代重庆零售商业离心化研究

本文以重庆市近郊区为研究区域,通过对近郊区与中心区社会商品零售额总量和增长率的比较以及对近郊区零售商业中心的特征分析,发现90年代中期开始出现商业离心化的迹象。商业离心化的出现是宏观环境以及中心区与近郊区推拉力机制共同作用的结果。目前的商业离心化尚处于萌芽阶段,是市场经济下的自觉行为,但不同于计划经济下的均衡分布,离心化发展速度较慢,主要发生在各郊区商业中心,中心区的商业优势仍然很突出。商业离心化势不可挡,近郊中心与中心区的竞争将更加激烈,中心商业区和郊区商业中心应各有侧重地发展     

Index to Volume L—2009

A U. S.-based geographer investigates how decentralization, a central component of China's fiscal reforms in the 1980s and 1990s, has altered the foundation of underlying economic inequalities among its regions. More specifically, the paper examines the evolution of China's fiscal system during the reform era and corresponding changes in the character of central-local fiscal relations. It focuses on analyzing how patterns in regional fiscal disparities at multiple geographic levels have changed over time, laying the groundwork for further research on China's uneven regional development.