Hayek, Local Information, and Commanding Heights : Decentralizing State-Owned Enterprises in China

Huang, Zhangkai ; Li, Lixing ; Ma, Guangrong ; Xu, Lixin Colin

American Economic Association

关键词: DECENTRALIZATION;    STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES;    COMMUNICATION COSTS;    STRATEGIC INDUSTRIES;    INDUSTRIAL POLICY;   

DOI  :  10.1257/aer.20150592
RP-ID  :  122574

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Hayek (1945) argues that local information is key to understanding the efficiency of alternative economic systems and whether production should be centralized or decentralized. The Chinese experience of decentralizing SOEs confirms this insight: when the distance to the government is farther, the SOE is more likely to be decentralized, and this distance-decentralization link is more pronounced with higher communication costs and greater firm-performance heterogeneity. However, when the Chinese central government oversees SOEs in strategic industries, the distance-decentralization link is muted. We also consider alternative agency-cost-based explanations, and do not find much support.