Leaving No One Behind: China's Central-Local Governments and Corporate Tripartite Collaboration to Reduce Poverty

We examine China's Targeted Poverty Alleviation Program in a hierarchical central-local-corporation tripartite collaboration framework. It started in 2014 but made only slow progress initially. To help accelerate the program, the central government permitted full tax deductions for corporate anti-poverty spending starting 2019. The progress accelerated. On average, central-government-owned SOEs donated more than local-government-owned SOEs, and private companies donated the least (but donated the most in the aggregate). Corporate spending was higher in locations with greater tax revenue and when the central government could better monitor firms' support. Furthermore, firm-level efforts significantly reduced poverty, while most government public spending did not.