Bureaucratic integration and synchronization of regional economic growth: Evidence from China

We analyze the impact of the central-local bureaucratic relation on the synchronization of regional economic growth in China using pairwise panel data of 31 provincial-level administrative units (465 pairs) from 1993 to 2014. We identify a significant positive impact of bureaucratic integration (top provincial-level government officials who have served in the central government) on regional output synchronization. Results from the estimations of instrumental variable, generalized method of moments, and subsample remain robust. However, bureaucratic rotation (top provincial-level government officials with prior working experience in other province) has no effects on regional output synchronization.