Policy burdens, accountability and soft budget constraint of Chinese HEIs

Abstract

Policy burdens of HEIs (higher education institutions) lead to the soft budget constraint (SBC) and the excessive loans of HEIs. Since information asymmetry and incentive are incompatible, policy burdens will result in the adverse selection of the president, and the excessive loans and low efficiency of HEIs. When HEIs are with policy burdens, the government’s restriction of the loan autonomy of HEIs is usually a hypo-optimizing institutional arrangement. The key to hardening budget constraint of HEIs is to free HEIs of policy burdens.