Chinese Public Finance (Gordon)

Paper by Roger Gordon presents reflections based on experience in China, discussing public finance and economic development. Moreover, the paper argues that “undertake only partial reforms that yield some growth but also help preserve the existing tax base” can be the most successful, in spite of the lower resulting growth rate. Chinese experiencie shows: “… policies that raise tax revenue also harm economic growtn…. There is a basic tension in policy design between current tax revenue and economic growth. ….What policies encourage growth without undue loss of currente expenditures?”