Huihua Nie 
Collusion, Local Governments and Development in China 
A Reflection on the China Model

By analyzing the interactions between China’s central government and its local governments and enterprises, this book constructs an analytical framework of government-enterprise collusion, analyzing the impact of collusion within the China model on Chinese society. Against the background of decentralization and under information asymmetry, this text argues that Chinese local governments connive at enterprises’ adoption of a low-cost ‘bad’ mode of production — a ‘stimulus’ for quick growth at the cost of safer working conditions — so as to obtain fiscal or political capital for further promotion. Through an examination of coalmine mortality rate, environmental pollution, food safety and house pricing, the book argues that collusion is the intrinsic drive of the China model. It consider how against a backdrop of political centralization and economic decentralization, collusion exacerbates corruption and impacts both on the country’s social development and on its foreign direct investment. Offering an analysis of future prospects for the China model, it puts forward key policy proposals to improve domestic institutional construction through reform.

Table of Content

PART ONE   An Anatomy of the China Model from the Perspective of Collusion.- Introduction.- Government-Firm Collusion: A New Analytical Framework.- Collusion and Coalmine Accidents.- Collusion and House Prices.- Pollution, Illegal Land Use, and Other Major Social Problems.- PART TWO  The Impact of Collusion and Institutional Environment.- The Impact of Collusion on Corporate Behaviors and Political Performance Assessment.- The Impact of Collusion on Government Behaviors.- The Impact of Collusion on Social Development.- Institutional Environment of Collusion.- Reform Prospects of the China Model. 

About the author

Dr Huihua Nie is a Professor at Renmin University, China and a postdoctoral fellow of Oliver Hart at Harvard University. His major research provinces are contract theory and institutional economics. He has contributed to China Social Sciences,  the Review of Economics & Statistics and the Journal of Comparative Economics.




Dr Haifeng Li is an Associate Professor at the Sichuan International Studies University, China and was a visiting fellow of Language Teaching Program as a second language at Edinburgh University, UK. He has contributed to the Chinese Translators’ Journal and Foreign Languages and Literature and written two translation textbooks. 






Ping Chen is a Lecturer at College of Foreign Languages of Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, China.