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Business & Economics

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE REGIONAL DIFFERENCES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURAL PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP PROJECTS IN CHINA⁷
Tong Yang, Xinyu Li, Chen Xing

ABSTRACT. Fewer agricultural public-private partnership (PPP) projects have been implemented in China than expected and their development varies among regions. Based on provincial panel data acquired from 2015 to 2018 in China, we used a fixed-effects regression model and Tobit model to analyse agricultural PPP projects throughout the whole country as well as the eastern, middle, and western regions in order to explore the main constraints related to the regional differences in development from economic and social perspectives. The results showed the following. (1) The level of local government public services and financing capacities were the main factors that affected the investment scale and landing rate⁸ of agricultural PPP projects in China. (2) The investment scale of agricultural PPP projects was also affected by the fiscal health condition of the government and the pressure of political achievements. In addition, the landing rate of projects was influenced by the tax burden and level of urbanisation. Further analysis showed that the variables mentioned above differed significantly among regions, where they affected the operation of agricultural PPP projects in the eastern, middle, and western regions of China to different degrees. Based on these findings, we propose relevant countermeasures and suggestions.

KEYWORDS:  agricultural public-private partnership project, factor, panel data, regional difference.

JEL classification:  Q14, R12, R58.

⁷ Acknowledgment: The authors are grateful to the editors and anonymous referees for their comments and acknowledge the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 72003002), the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project of Anhui Universities (Key) (No. SK2019A0509), the Outstanding Young Talent Support Program in Colleges and Universities of Anhui Universities (General) (No. GXYQ2020156), the Research Project of Anhui University of Finance and Economics (No. ACKYB20006), and the Research and Innovation Project for Postgraduates of Anhui University of Finance and Economics (Grant Nos. ACYC2019007 and ACYC2019012).

⁸The landing rate of PPP project is equal to the sum of the number of projects in the two stages of execution and transfer divided by the sum of the number of projects in the five stages of identification, preparation, procurement, execution, and transfer.