Can relationship bring more provision in rural public goods? Empirical evidence from rural China
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how different types of the village relationship influence different types of public goods provision in rural China.
Design/methodology/approach
The three components (clan-based relationship, neighborhood relationship and external relationship) were derived by employing factor analysis. The simultaneous discrete choice model was used to estimate the influence of these components on public goods provision, using the survey data from the China Household Income Project conducted in 2007.
Findings
The findings indicate that considering different components of village relationship allows for a better understanding of the public good provision. The results indicate that the neighborhood relationship has a significantly positive effect on rural public goods provision, particularly on water conservancy and irrigation, while the external relationship has a significantly positive effect on all types of public goods.
Practical implications
Local public goods provision is the core of the new rural construction in China. These findings imply that relationship in villages plays a vital role in the provision of public goods and is necessary in the construction of the new harmonious countryside in China. The results also have implications for rural public goods provision in other developing countries.
Originality/value
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to quantitatively model the impact of different relationships on public goods provision at the rural level. A consideration of the different components in village relationship allows for a more precise understanding of the pubic goods provision in the village.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank participants at the fourth Wanjiang Economic Forum (WEF): The Chinese Economics Society of Australia (CESA) – Hefei University of Technology (HFUT) Joint Conference for helpful comments and suggestions. The authors are also grateful to the anonymous referees for their helpful comments. Financial supports from the Humanities and Social Science Planning Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (Grant number 14YJCZH155), Anhui Social Science Foundation (Grant number AHSKQ2015D22). The National Statistical Research Funds of China (Grant number 2016LY05). Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant numbers JZ2015HGBZ0475, JS2016HGXJ0014 and JZ2016HGTB0715) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant numbers 71373026 and 71471053) are highly acknowledged.
Citation
Wang, Y., Liu, Q., Wu, Y. and Wu, H. (2017), "Can relationship bring more provision in rural public goods? Empirical evidence from rural China", China Agricultural Economic Review, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 48-61. https://doi.org/10.1108/CAER-07-2016-0098
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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