Abstract: In recent years, the scale of the issuance of local government bonds in China has been constantly expanding, and the impact of financing costs on the financial affairs of local governments is gradually emerging. Taking the local government bonds issued during the period of 2015-2016 as the full samples, this paper conducts an empirical test on the quality of government information disclosure (fiscal transparency), credit rating and the financing costs of local government bonds. The results show that the improvement of fiscal transparency can significantly reduce the financing cost of local government bonds, in which the government credit rating plays a partial meditating role. This indicates that the quality of government information disclosure and credit rating results will affect investors’judgment on the credit risk of government bonds to a certain extent, and in turn will affect the financing cost of local government bonds.

Key words: fiscal transparency; credit rating; local government; bond financing cost