Top-level Design，Public Participation and Disclosure of Local Government Debt Information: A Follow-up Study on the Random Application (2020)

The disclosure of local government debt information is an effective way to supervise and restrict the government’s borrowing behavior and improve the level of financial governance, so it is of great practical significance to promote the disclosure of local government debt information. This paper takes 36 provincial issuers of local bonds in China as the object, takes the disclosure of local debt balance data in 2018 as the starting point, uses the top-level design opportunity of “measures for the disclosure of local government debt information（for Trial Implementation）” issued by the Ministry of Finance, seizes the short window period from the policy promulgation to the implementation in time, and constructs a random experiment by application of disclosure. This paper not only observes the one-time and immediate impact on the disclosure of local debts in budget implementation, but also tracks and observes the continuous impact on the disclosure of final accounts, and quantitatively analyzes the impact of top-level system design and public active participation on the disclosure of local debt information by using differences-in-differences method. The results show that: （1）Both top-level design and public participation can promote the disclosure of local debt information, and the combination of the two is more significant.（2）The implementation of the debt information disclosure system by local governments will be significantly enhanced due to public participation, and the implementation timeliness will also be significantly improved.（3）At the same time, public participation has not only an immediate one-time impact on the disclosure of local debt information, but also a long-term sustainable impact. From the perspective of the disclosure of final accounts, its impact still exists six months later. Therefore, first of all, we should further strengthen and improve the top-level system design related to the disclosure of local debt information, and improve the legislative level and legal effect of relevant laws and regulations. In addition, we should guide and encourage the active participation of the public, strengthen the channel construction and handling efficiency according to the application for publicity, strengthen and improve the complaint and reporting channels of the public for the departments that do not fulfill the obligation of information publicity, especially strengthen the channel construction of online reporting, effectively guarantee the legitimate supervision right of the public, and promote the standardized and benign governance of local debts through information publicity. Finally, in order to further strengthen the application right, administrative reconsideration right and administrative litigation right in the process of public participation, we should pay more attention to and design the system in the current administrative reconsideration right and administrative litigation right, so as to implement the implementation of the system with the joint efforts of the upper and lower levels and the superposition of each other.