RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Leader Networks and Interjurisdictional Contracting in Land Conversion Quotas
JF Land Economics
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 568
OP 587
DO 10.3368/le.100.3.040120-0046R1
VO 100
IS 3
A1 Chau, Nancy H.
A1 Qin, Yu
A1 Zhang, Weiwen
YR 2024
UL http://le.uwpress.org/content/100/3/568.abstract
AB Do network connections between government officials and administrative units facilitate efficient land use contracting across jurisdictions? This article leverages data from a groundbreaking policy in China where a strict quota-bound land use policy was replaced with an alternative, allowing between-county trade in land conversion quotas. We unpack the determinants of the boundary between trading and autarkic jurisdictions and unveil leader-related drivers of transaction costs between jurisdictions in a gravity-style estimation. We catalogue personal and career histories of county-level leaders and present evidence that leader networks derived from employment history are robustly trade-facilitating but nonworkplace links are not.