Abstract:
This paper reconstructs the logical framework of the regional economic growth under the influence of government competition: the institutional arrangement of the local government competition is based on the supporting environment, the preferential policies and the system optimization, and then from the perspective of institutional changes the government competition is internalized into economic growth. The panel data of 30 provinces and regions in China during 1998—2012 are used to test the actual effect of government competition on regional economic growth. It is found that government competition has a certain effect on the regional economic growth, but there are significant differences in the forms of government competition. For example, there is no significant correlation between the improvement of the supporting environment and the economic growth in the same region under the national sample, but there is a significant positive correlation between competition under preferential policy and system optimization and economic growth. The influence coefficients are 0.178% and 0.244% respectively. In addition, the economic growth effect of the system optimization competition is very significant in the eastern region, and the role of supporting environmental competition is more prominent in the less-developed central and western provinces.