services. Public choice theory argues that households with heterogeneous

preferences of tax and public services would vote by their feet to choose the

jurisdictions with their favorable package of public services and taxes. Therefore,

disparities in public service accessibility are benign, and fragmented local

governments could be efficient for public service providing and generate higher

satisfaction. In contrast, some other perspectives, such as the social

stratification‐government inequality thesis, are mainly concerned with the equity

issues. In particular, fragmented governance can institutionalize the hierarchical

nature of residential structure by promoting and protecting unequal distribution

of public resources. Since these perspectives are mainly based on experiences of

“free” housing markets and unrestricted mobility of residents under western

democratic systems, they do not speak directly to a transitional‐socialist

economy with very unique and complicated political and household registration

systems like China. Under this theoretical background, this study attempts to

examine the relationship between public service provision and local government

structure. We examine public service provision from the consumer’s perspective,

i.e., spatial accessibility of public infrastructure at different geographic scales.

Using data from Le Zhi Real Estate Market Research and Consulting Co., Ltd.

China Census statistics, and Shanghai Census statistics, this study examines how

access to public services is contingent on government structure and

socioeconomic characteristics at three geographic scales: residential community

(Xiao Qu), street (Jie Dao), and urban district (Shi Qu). A multilevel regression is

used in the study. The results will reveal the extent to which market forces,

government fragmentation and decentralization, and other institutional factors

have transformed public service provision and distribution, and hence disparities

of public service accessibility among residents with different socioeconomic

status. The findings will not only advance our understanding of government’s

role in socioeconomic stratification, but also provide significant policy

implications for equal distribution of public services in a socially and

economically polarized globalizing city.