Contemporary Finance & Economics ›› 2025, Vol. 0 ›› Issue (9): 30-44.

• Public Economics & Administration • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Measurement of Local Fiscal Resilience, Regional Differences and Convergence Characteristics in China

Guo Qing-Hua1, Zhang Ping2   

  1. 1. Tianjin University of Commerce, Tianjin 300134;
    2. Tianjin University of Finance and Economics, Tianjin 300222, China
  • Received:2025-02-17 Revised:2025-08-03 Published:2025-09-16

Abstract: Enhancing local fiscal resilience is not only an important part of building a modernized fiscal system, but also the key and foundation for realizing high-quality economic development. Based on the provincial panel data from 2015 to 2023 in China, this study measures the resilience level, spatial and temporal pattern evolution, and convergence characteristics of local finance. The results show that the resilience level of local finance in various provinces has remained relatively stable, and the resilience level of local finance in the eastern region is higher than that in the central and western regions. From a multidimensional perspective, in the resilience of local finance the national fiscal resilience is the highest, fiscal growth capacity is moderate, the fiscal recovery capacity basically keeps stable, and the fiscal adaptability is the lowest. The Gini coefficient is relatively lower across the country and in different regions, with the largest regional gap between the eastern and western regions. From the perspective of convergence characteristics, there are obvious convergence features in the resilience level of local finance across the country and in different regions. Therefore, in order to improve the resilience level of local finance, China should establish the concept of fiscal resilience governance and build a more stable fiscal system, enhance the growth capacity of local finance and strengthen its sustainable development under normal circumstances, implement differentiated fiscal and taxation policies to narrow the differences in local fiscal resilience between regions.

Key words: fiscal safety, local financial resilience, fiscal sustainability, fiscal resilience, fiscal adaptability

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