Funding China's Urban Infrastructure: Revenue Structure and Financing Approaches

Abstract

With the rapid increase in the need for urban infrastructure, the issue of infrastructure funding has become more and more essential. This paper focuses on the following three issues: first, it clarifies the trend and regional pattern of infrastructure funding. Second, this paper further discusses funding mechanisms from the perspective of government and market. Third, this paper will evaluate current trend and pattern based on the five theoretical dimensions. Concerning the trends of infrastructure funding, the growth of market financing is faster than fiscal revenue; therefore, the importance of fiscal revenue has decreased. Regionally, the east has the highest reliance on fiscal revenue, which is largely due to its high land transfer fee. Municipality has the highest proportion of market financing. From the perspective of government and market, the importance of government-leading mode has decreased, while UDIC-leading and private sector involvement play a more and more essential role.