IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v85y2025ipds1544612325013443.html

The impact of tax collection and administration system reform on local government debt: A perspective based on digital inclusive finance

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, ShiTao
  • Li, Jing

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of tax collection and administration system reforms and digital inclusive finance on local government debt. Utilizing provincial panel data from 2011 to 2023, an empirical model was constructed to examine how tax collection and administration system reforms and digital inclusive finance affect the debt levels of local governments. The findings indicate that reforms in the tax collection and administration system significantly reduce local government debt levels. Additionally, the development of digital inclusive finance also significantly decreases local government debt. Further analysis of moderating effects reveals that digital inclusive finance plays a significant positive moderating role in the impact of tax collection and administration system reforms on local government debt, with the strongest effect observed in the western region.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, ShiTao & Li, Jing, 2025. "The impact of tax collection and administration system reform on local government debt: A perspective based on digital inclusive finance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(PD).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:85:y:2025:i:pd:s1544612325013443
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2025.108087
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612325013443
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2025.108087?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Julio C. Zambrano-Gutiérrez & Claudia N. Avellaneda, 2022. "Municipal Response to Fiscal and Governance Reforms: Effects of Stricter Debt Limits across Jurisdictions," International Journal of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(7), pages 590-603, May.
    2. Bu, Ya & Du, Xin & Wang, Yuting & Liu, Shuyu & Tang, Min & Li, Hui, 2024. "Digital inclusive finance: A lever for SME financing?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    3. Wei Tang & Xingzhu Zhao & Shengbao Zhai & Lei Cao, 2023. "Local government debt and corporate tax burden: A perspective based on the trade-off of government tax collection and management," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(7), pages 1-23, July.
    4. Wang, Lei & Sha, Yifan & Ding, Lili & Zhao, Zhongchao, 2024. "Risk mitigation strategies in urban investment bonds: Insights from local government implicit debt governance," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 607-618.
    5. Jorge Martínez-Vázquez & Eduardo Sanz-Arcega & José Manuel Tránchez Martín, 2023. "Tax revenue management and reform in the digital era in developing and developed countries," Chapters, in: Komla Dzigbede & W. B. Hildreth (ed.), Research Handbook on Public Financial Management, chapter 11, pages 202-225, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Zhang, Jinzhu & Liu, Yu & Zhou, Meifang & Chen, Boyang & Liu, Yawen & Cheng, Baodong & Xue, Jinjun & Zhang, Wei, 2022. "Regulatory effect of improving environmental information disclosure under environmental tax in China: From the perspectives of temporal and industrial heterogeneity," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    7. Chen, Wen & Zhu, Yufeng & He, Zehui & Yang, Yang, 2022. "The effect of local government debt on green innovation: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    8. Xiong, Jiacai & Huang, Ling & Yang, Zelin & Wang, Xin, 2024. "The impact of local government debt on entrepreneurship: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment of local debt governance reform," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PA), pages 501-519.
    9. Lan Bo & Haixin Yao & Fred C.J. Mear, 2021. "New development: Is China’s local government debt problem getting better or worse?," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(8), pages 663-667, November.
    10. Liu, Qiongzhi & Bai, Yun & Song, Hexin, 2023. "The crowding out effect of government debt on corporate financing: Firm-level evidence from China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 264-272.
    11. Anne Brockmeyer & Magaly Sáenz Somarriba, 2025. "Electronic Payment Technology and Tax Compliance: Evidence from Uruguay's Financial Inclusion Reform," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 242-272, February.
    12. Favourate Y. Mpofu & Tankiso Moloi, 2022. "Direct Digital Services Taxes in Africa and the Canons of Taxation," Laws, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-20, July.
    13. Cheng, Qian & Chen, Boying & Luo, Jingwen, 2024. "The impact of digital tax administration on local government debt: Based on the revision of the tax collection and administration law," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 67(PB).
    14. David Mhlanga & Favourate Y. Mpofu, 2023. "The Impact of Digital Financial Service Taxes and Mobile Money Taxes on Financial Inclusion and Inclusive Development in Africa," Advances in African Economic, Social and Political Development, in: David Mhlanga & Emmanuel Ndhlovu (ed.), Economic Inclusion in Post-Independence Africa, chapter 0, pages 81-102, Springer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yin, Liang & Hu, Shiyang & Yan, Huijun, 2025. "Local government implicit debt and corporate bankruptcy: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    2. Feifei Li & Ruile Xue & Songying Wang & Mingyue Du, 2024. "Does the Expansion of Local Government Debt Affect the ESG Performance of Enterprises? Evidence From China," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(4), pages 21582440241, October.
    3. Benkraiem, Ramzi & Gaaya, Safa & Lakhal, Faten & Kilic, Merve, 2025. "Access to finance and corporate tax avoidance: International evidence," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    4. Xu, Lingjuan & Liu, Yijiang & Li, Xintong & Zhang, Xuan, 2026. "Spillover effect of local government debt on regional financial risk: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    5. Song Nie, 2025. "How does fiscal pressure affect corporate green transformation? A quasi-natural experiment based on education authority reform," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 68(5), pages 2357-2382, May.
    6. Wang, Lei & Sha, Yifan & Ding, Lili & Zhao, Zhongchao, 2024. "Risk mitigation strategies in urban investment bonds: Insights from local government implicit debt governance," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 607-618.
    7. Li, Anjie & Qiu, Junjie, 2024. "Does local government debt promote firm green innovation? Evidence from the Chinese local government debt governance reform," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 1046-1062.
    8. Tang, Dapeng & Yang, Yiming & Zheng, Hao & Gebrehans, Mebrahtu Tesfagebreal, 2024. "Does reform policy of municipal bonds raise firm risk? A quasi-natural experiment from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    9. Zhang, Jingting & Zeng, Junping, 2025. "Whac-a-mole: China's debt policies and local debt risks," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    10. Shao, Wenbo & Chen, Yufan & Zhu, Huan, 2025. "Does the “Braking” of China's land finance facilitate economic “Shift Gears”? Evidence from investment decisions of real firms," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 223-237.
    11. Mingyao Cao & Keyi Duan & Haslindar Ibrahim, 2023. "Local Government Debt and Its Impact on Corporate Underinvestment and ESG Performance: Empirical Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-18, July.
    12. Hai Xie & Weikun Zhang & Hanyuan Liang, 2023. "Can Local Government Debt Decrease the Pollution Emission of Enterprises?—Evidence from China’s Industrial Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-20, June.
    13. Zhou, Yuanxiang & Liu, Huayan & Chen, Chan & Ma, Yingqi, 2025. "The impact of digital inclusive finance on green economic efficiency: Pathways to inclusive sustainability," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    14. Zou, Ganna & Zhang, Shengbo & Gan, Xingqiong & Cheng, Hua, 2025. "How government green procurement incentivises corporate green innovation? Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 1605-1626.
    15. Naritomi, Joana & Nyamdavaa, Tsogsag & Campbell, Stephanie, 2025. "Enlisting consumers in tax enforcement: a policy review," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 127223, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. He, Zhimin & Chen, Weiye & Chen, Minghui & He, Shuping, 2025. "Local government debt and commercial bank liquidity creation," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    17. Xiao, He, 2022. "Environmental regulation and firm capital structure dynamics," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 770-787.
    18. Lu, Futao & Xia, Xinqu & Wu, Yan, 2026. "Does digital inclusive finance influence the entry and exit of agro-processing enterprises? Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 165-177.
    19. Yue Wang & Qing Wei & Shiyin Jiang, 2025. "Why Does the Construction of Low-Carbon Cities Contribute to the Expansion of Urban Investment Bonds? Evidence From China," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(3), pages 21582440251, September.
    20. Zhao, Shikuan & Abbassi, Wajih & Hunjra, Ahmed Imran & Zhang, Han, 2024. "How do government R&D subsidies affect corporate green innovation choices? Perspectives from strategic and substantive innovation," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PA), pages 1378-1396.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:85:y:2025:i:pd:s1544612325013443. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.