China Tells

A comparison between the revenue source of China and US’s local governments illustrates some interesting points: 1) China government is more reliant on Inter-government funds transfer, which is mainly the fund from Beijing, and Property/Land related revenues, while US local governments are more reliant on VAT and Utility such as hospital, parking, schools, etc; 2) US local governments have a huge portion of income coming from Insurance trust, while in China it is none. Such a discrepancy also suggests a possible reason for the difficulty of curbing property bubble in China as a good part of the local government’s income comes from housing sector.

通过中美地方政府收入来源的分析可以看出，中国地方政府更多的依靠房地产收入和中央政府拨款，而美国地方政府更多的依靠消费税以及当地公共设施服务的提供。从这个对比也可以管中窥豹，猜测为什么中国一些地区房地产泡沫屡禁不止的原因。