From one to many central plans: drug advertising inspections and intra-national protectionism in China

This paper provides the first micro-level evidence for the existence and patterns of intra-national protectionism in China. We demonstrate that drug advertising inspections are used by provincial governments to discriminate against firms from outside the province. We further reveal systematic patter...

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Main Authors: Eberhardt, Markus, Wang, Zheng, Yu, Zhihong
Format: Article
Published: Elsevier 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32143/
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author Eberhardt, Markus
Wang, Zheng
Yu, Zhihong
author_facet Eberhardt, Markus
Wang, Zheng
Yu, Zhihong
author_sort Eberhardt, Markus
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper provides the first micro-level evidence for the existence and patterns of intra-national protectionism in China. We demonstrate that drug advertising inspections are used by provincial governments to discriminate against firms from outside the province. We further reveal systematic patterns in the degree of discrimination across firms: those from neighboring areas, those from regions with more economic links to the destination province, those from provinces with stronger presence in the market, and those with political ties to “allied” provincial governments are less likely to be targeted. Our findings highlight the unique politico-economic structure in China and confirm that giving local governments strong incentives to compete with each other may exacerbate the market distortions inherent in a partially reformed economy.
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spelling nottingham-321432020-05-04T18:05:02Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32143/ From one to many central plans: drug advertising inspections and intra-national protectionism in China Eberhardt, Markus Wang, Zheng Yu, Zhihong This paper provides the first micro-level evidence for the existence and patterns of intra-national protectionism in China. We demonstrate that drug advertising inspections are used by provincial governments to discriminate against firms from outside the province. We further reveal systematic patterns in the degree of discrimination across firms: those from neighboring areas, those from regions with more economic links to the destination province, those from provinces with stronger presence in the market, and those with political ties to “allied” provincial governments are less likely to be targeted. Our findings highlight the unique politico-economic structure in China and confirm that giving local governments strong incentives to compete with each other may exacerbate the market distortions inherent in a partially reformed economy. Elsevier 2016-08-31 Article PeerReviewed Eberhardt, Markus, Wang, Zheng and Yu, Zhihong (2016) From one to many central plans: drug advertising inspections and intra-national protectionism in China. Journal of Comparative Economics, 44 (3). pp. 608-622. ISSN 0147-5967 Intra-national protectionism; Drug advertising; China http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147596715000943 doi:10.1016/j.jce.2015.10.012 doi:10.1016/j.jce.2015.10.012
spellingShingle Intra-national protectionism; Drug advertising; China
Eberhardt, Markus
Wang, Zheng
Yu, Zhihong
From one to many central plans: drug advertising inspections and intra-national protectionism in China
title From one to many central plans: drug advertising inspections and intra-national protectionism in China
title_full From one to many central plans: drug advertising inspections and intra-national protectionism in China
title_fullStr From one to many central plans: drug advertising inspections and intra-national protectionism in China
title_full_unstemmed From one to many central plans: drug advertising inspections and intra-national protectionism in China
title_short From one to many central plans: drug advertising inspections and intra-national protectionism in China
title_sort from one to many central plans: drug advertising inspections and intra-national protectionism in china
topic Intra-national protectionism; Drug advertising; China
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32143/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32143/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32143/