政府审计能够抑制地方政府债务增长吗？——财政分权的视角

以2005—2016年我国31个省级政府为研究样本,通过构建动态面板数据模型,从财政分权的视角,研究了政府审计与地方政府债务增长之间的关系及其作用机理。研究发现：政府审计能够抑制地方政府债务增长,且政府审计增收节支效应在低债务规模省份能够发挥抑制作用,政府审计建立健全制度效应在高债务规模省份能够发挥抑制作用。进一步研究表明,政府审计地方政府债务治理效应存在财政分权体制差异,财政分权越高,政府审计对于地方政府债务增长的抑制作用越强。研究对于充分发挥政府审计的地方政府债务治理效应,防范地方政府债务风险,具有理论和现实意义。     

地方政府债务风险对金融压力的溢出效应——兼论重大突发事件冲击的影响

本文基于2007年1月至2020年12月的月度数据,使用CRITIC熵权法构造金融压力指数,并分别从城投债利差和相对发行规模两个角度测度中国地方政府债务风险;通过TVP VAR模型实证分析地方政府债务风险对金融压力的溢出效应,以及重大突发事件冲击产生的影响。研究结果显示：第一,地方政府债务风险对金融压力始终具有较强的解释效力,并且基本上呈现正向影响;第二,2008—2012年,地方政府债务风险对金融压力溢出作用的主要源头为债务利差的波动,2016年以来则转变为债务规模的提升;第三,在新冠肺炎疫情的冲击下,地方政府债务的信用风险与偿债风险对金融压力均具有正向冲击作用,整体冲击力度高于前期数次重大突发事件。因此,“十四五”时期的重要任务之一,就是进一步化解地方政府债务风险,有效阻断其向金融部门的传导路径,切实打好防范系统性金融风险的攻坚战。     

基于竞争视角的地方政府债务研究述评

基于竞争视角,从公共品的提供、地方政府的负债经营、博弈论视角下的政府竞争与地方政府债务、债务风险防范四个方面对地方政府债务问题进行了梳理和分析,总结出了政府竞争对于地方政府债务的作用机制,充分阐述了自上而下的“标杆竞争”、政府追求财源行为的异化、预算软约束等与地方政府债务的内在联系,并展望了地方政府债务问题研究的进一步发展方向。     

市场因素下的地方债务分析

地方债务一直是社会公众和经济学界所普遍关注的问题,目前中国地方债务累积的数量已然相当庞大,面临着诸多风险.基于地方政府经济发展速度和偿债能力的考量,中国各个省级政府的地方债务规模也不尽相同.因此合理评价地方债务的规模就显得尤为重要,地方债务的风险敞口可以选取多种角度进行衡量,其中,市场因素是很多学者重点考察的因素.文章选取了市场因素的视角,以辽宁省为范例,旨在对辽宁地方债务进行全面的分析,能够对地方债务的相关研究有所裨益.     

地方政府债务扩张与资源配置效率

地方政府以土地出让收入作为担保和偿债来源能够放大其债务融资能力,而提高市场资源配置效率是实现经济高质量发展的重要支撑。首先,通过构建理论框架,揭示了金融摩擦异质性导致地方政府债务扩张加剧了资源错配;其次,利用中国工业企业数据,结合2009年中央政府放松地方政府债务融资管制这一外生事件,采用双重差分方法,对地方政府债务扩张的资源配置效应进行了实证检验。研究发现：地方政府债务扩张加剧了资源配置效率的损失,这一结论在经历了一系列稳健性检验后仍然成立;机制分析验证了理论框架的假设,即地方政府债务扩张相对更多的提高了民营企业融资成本和资本边际收益产品,进而拉大了部门间价值生产率的离散程度,造成资源错配的加剧;进一步分析发现,地方政府债务扩张引发的资源错配最终降低了加总的全要素生产率。上述结论丰富了现有针对中国地方政府债务经济效应分析的文献,不仅拓展了理论支撑,还提供了详实的经验证据,对防范和化解地方政府债务风险、助推经济高质量发展具有一定的参考价值。     

地方政府债务审计的作用分析

我国地方政府债务规模逐年增长,偿债风险也随之加剧。地方政府债务问题关系到国家的经济安全和社会稳定,审计作为国家经济社会的免疫系统,在防范地方政府债务风险、维护国家财政安全、保证经济可持续发展方面必须发挥其应有的作用。本文就地方政府债务审计的作用进行粗浅分析,认为地方政府债务审计的作用主要体现在五个方面,即预警地方政府债务风险、揭示政府债务管理问题、提高债务资金使用效益、制约地方政府行政权力、促进债务管理机制完善。     

地方政府债务问题探讨及对策

快速增长的地方政府债务拉动了GDP增长,其正面作用不容抹杀,但是潜在风险也在积聚。依法规范地方政府债务管理、强化领导责任、以及提高政府支出效益,是完善地方政府治理的重要内容,也是化解地方政府债务风险的治本之策。一、地方政府债务潜在风险不容小觑2013年12月30日审计署审计公告显示,政府债务率超过100%;尤其是地方政府债务快速增长,     

对地方债务的思考

近年来,地方债务违约事件不断增加,如果出现大面积债务违约,将会引发整个金融市场的系统性风险,而且地方政府将不能正常运作,最终将导致社会的不稳定.事实上,中国经济在过去的几十年间的飞速发展,地方政府通过借债增加地方资金流动性,对经济的发展功不可没.随着债务规模由小到大,债务由短期到长期,地方政府的偿债压力日益加大,由此引发了债务违约,因此需引起高度重视.     

FDI竞争具有债务融资“挤出效应”吗？

研究目标：考察地方政府FDI竞争是否具有企业债务融资“挤出效应”。研究方法：选取中国上市公司微观面板数据,并运用多元线性回归方程模型。研究发现：地方政府FDI竞争对其辖区内企业的银行借款总额和长期借款具有“挤出效应”,但这种现象仅在市场化进程较低、中西部地区的企业中存在,且当面临FDI债务融资“挤出效应”时企业一般通过扩大商业信用进行替代;进一步分析还发现,政企关联作为对不完善市场机制的一种替代保护机制能够缓解FDI竞争下长期借款“挤出效应”问题;无论是从银行借款总额还是从借款期限结构来看,地方财政赤字强化了FDI竞争下债务融资的“挤出效应”。研究创新：从企业债务融资微观视角揭示了地方FDI竞争对投资“挤出效应”的作用机理,突破了现有“宏中观层面”研究视角与证据。研究价值：填补了宏中观层面投资“挤出效应”的微观形成机理,并对纠偏地方FDI恶性竞争行为具有重要政策启示。     

预算约束视角下的地方政府债务问题研究

本文通过分析政府债务在不满足债务跨期预算约束时的影响因素,并利用31个省份2010—2018年的面板数据,实证分析预算软约束与地方政府债务之间的关系.结果表明,地方政府财政努力水平的降低会提高债务率水平.通过财政努力水平的降低提高了地方政府对于财政转移支付的依赖,进而导致政府在较低的财政收入水平下形成了相对较大规模的债务,最终提高了债务率、增加了债务风险.并且分地区看,这种预算软约束对于债务的影响主要表现在财政能力较差的西部地区.     

政府债务对经济增长的影响及作用渠道

基于1960～2010年113个国家的面板数据集,运用系统广义矩动态面板方法和稳健性分析,比较发达国家和发展中国家政府债务经济增长效应的差异,并尝试分析政府债务影响经济增长的渠道。研究结果显示,政府债务对经济增长有非线性影响;发达国家政府债务对经济增长、投资以及全要素生产率均无显著影响;发展中国家对政府债务的直接承受力更弱,但在一个宽松的临界点内,政府债务的增加可以提高投资率。     

中国多机制门限金融状况指数编制及应用

研究目标：实证编制及应用中国多机制门限金融状况指数(MR-TFCI)。研究方法：通过拓展构建了多机制门限向量自回归(MR-TVAR)模型和MR-TFCI的多机制门限编制公式,从经济增长(RG)目标出发,选取5个金融变量,测算四个机制的广义脉冲响应函数值,编制了中国MR-TFCI,并比较其与 2机制门限FCI(2R-TFCI)和1机制线性FCI(1R-FCI)的优劣。研究发现：与2R-TFCI和1R-FCI相比,MR-TFCI是RG更优的先行、相关性、因果性和预测指标;中国货币政策调控经济增长的效应和传导渠道具有门限特征;中国货币政策调控经济增长的方式类型是价格和数量结合型的。研究创新：构建了MR-TVAR模型和MR-FCI的多机制门限编制公式,编制了首个多机制门限金融状况指数。研究价值：为中国政府部门实施货币政策和实体经济进行投融资决策提供了科学决策依据。     

Debt financing and maintenance expenditure: Theory and evidence on government-operated toll roads in China

Transportation infrastructure is the foundation of economic growth, and the existence of high-quality roads is inseparable from their durable maintenance. However, the burden of heavy debt has brought risks to maintenance management and distorted resource allocation. This study builds a two-stage optimal theoretical model under different debt-financing constraints in China, who has the longest expressway mileage of any country in the world. We establish the two principles of “spend-and-debt” and “debt-and-spend” to demonstrate the substitution effect and the complementary effect of debt financing on maintenance, respectively. Furthermore, we use a time-varying differences-in-differences approach to estimate the effect of the financing of tollway bonds on maintenance and further discuss the mechanism. The results provide evidence that there is a significant improvement in the relationship between tollway bonds and maintenance expenditure, mainly due to the reduction of debt costs and the passive propelling of the government’s spending responsibility. Our proposed theoretical and empirical framework sheds new light on transportation infrastructure research. More specifically, the impetus for public expenditure comes from a decrease of the substitution effect, which not only alleviates the burden of debt scale on the public sector but also provides a reference for developing countries to balance infrastructure construction and maintenance.     

中国省级政府债务风险测度与分析

将财政收入分解为税收收入,土地出让收入以及其他收入。假设三类收入分别服从扩散过程,利用伊藤引理和投资组合理论,建立地方政府债务违约概率测算模型。省级政府债务违约风险的评价结果表明：税收收入和其他收入对地方政府债务违约风险的影响较大,“土地财政”的影响相对较小;偿还债务的期限越长,地方政府债务的违约风险越低;东、中、西部地区的省级地方政府债务的违约风险存在显著差别。西部地区省份的违约风险最高,东部发达地区的违约风险最低。发债试点的8个省市的违约风险普遍较低。四是如果偿还期限为5年,有29个省份的地方政府债务违约风险低于50%。     

Debt stabilization games in the presence of risk premia

As a result of the recent financial crisis and the ensuing economic recession, fiscal deficits have soared in many OECD countries. As a consequence, government debt has been on the rise again after a period of stable or declining government debt. In this paper we analyze debt stabilization in a country that features endogenous risk premia, imposed by financial markets that evaluate the probability of debt default by governments. Endogenous risk premia arise by assuming, e.g., simple linear relations between risk premia and the level of debt. As a result the real interest rate on government debt can be written as a constant (measuring the risk-free real interest rate corrected for real output growth) plus an endogenous risk premium that depends on the debt level. We bring such an endogenous risk premium into Tabellini (1986) model and analyze the impact of it. This gives rise to a non-linear differential game. We solve this game for both a cooperative setting and a non-cooperative setting. The non-cooperative game is solved under an open-loop information structure. We present a bifurcation analysis w.r.t. the risk premium parameter.     

国家治理、地方政府性债务审计与经济安全

地方政府性债务因关系到区域财政金融安全与经济安全而受到前所未有的关注。新形势下,从国家治理角度来看地方政府性债务审计,可以全面深入地认识地方政府性债务的本质问题。要充分发挥地方政府性债务“免疫系统”功能,需要构建地方政府债务审计治理基本路径,建立健全地方政府性债务审计治理机制,防范地方政府性债务风险,维护国家财政金融安全与经济安全。     

DEFINING THE GOVERNMENT'S DEBT AND DEFICIT

Although the budget deficit and the public debt feature prominently in political debate and economic research, there is no agreement about how they should be measured. They can be defined for different sets of public institutions, including the nested sets corresponding to central government, general government, and the public sector, and, for any definition of government, there are many measures of the debt and deficit, including those generated by four kinds of accounts (cash, financial, full accrual, and comprehensive), which can be derived from four nested sets of assets and liabilities. Each debt and deficit measure says something about public finances, but none tells the whole story. Each is also vulnerable to manipulation, and is likely to be manipulated if it is subject to a binding fiscal rule or target. Narrow definitions of government encourage the shifting of spending to entities outside the defined perimeter of government. Narrow definitions of debt and deficit encourage operations involving off‐balance‐sheets assets and liabilities, while broad measures are susceptible to the mismeasurement of on‐balance‐sheet assets and liabilities. Reviewing the literature on these issues, the paper concludes that governments should publish several measures of the debt and deficit in a form that clearly reveals their interrelationships.     

The US debt–growth nexus along the business cycle

We use the US data gathered by Reinhart and Rogoff (2010) to assess whether debt affects economic growth differently at different phases of the business cycle. In order to do that, we extend the threshold regression model of Chudik et al. (2017) and propose a new threshold quantile ARDL regression model. Our results show that to stimulate growth policy makers can manage the debt/GDP percentage according to how well the economy is doing. The estimated quantile thresholds (range 31–53 per cent) are larger than the one found by Lee et al. (2017) using median regressions, but still (much) smaller than the 90 per cent of Reinhart and Rogoff. In particular, when the US economy observes growth rates above their median value, that is when a smaller debt-to-GDP threshold affects the performance of the economy. In a steady-state situation, in general, regardless of the position of the business cycle and whether the debt-to-GDP ratio is below or above its threshold effect, less debt as a percentage of GDP boosts the US growth. Remarkably, this effect was always greater before than after World War II. Moreover, the most recent decades have witnessed the negative (positive) effect of more (less) debt when the economy had growth rates at their first quartile (median and third quartile). That is, the US policy makers are advised to reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio during expansions to promote growth.     

Economic fundamentals and Eurozone sovereign spreads: will the good news continue?

Spreads between government bond yields in the Eurozone periphery and Germany have fallen to the lowest levels in 3 to 4 years. There are two major factors behind this. The first is the speech by ECB President Mario Draghi on 26 July 2012 promising ‘to do – within its mandate – whatever it takes’ and the ECB's Outright Monetary Transactions initiative of summer 2012. This has been successful in eliminating fears of an imminent Eurozone break‐up. The second factor is the improvement in economic fundamentals in the periphery countries, particularly in Ireland, Spain and Greece. Previous econometric work on the role of economic fundamentals at the country level has focused almost entirely on government debt and government deficit to GDP ratios. The true fundamentals have been obscured by market panics and by the fact that markets really only took full account of these fundamentals from the end of 2010. Before the middle of 2007, markets ignored the build‐up of stresses between Eurozone countries. Once amplification of perceived risks by market panics and the shift from inattention to full market attention are taken into account, a far more nuanced picture emerges of what country fundamentals really matter for sovereign spreads. In addition to excessive government debt, deteriorating competitiveness, excessive private debt, and housing market crises spilling into banking systems, have been especially prominent in the countries at the periphery. In Ireland and Spain, declining relative unit labour costs and the fading of the housing crisis have recently been important in narrowing spreads against Germany. The econometric model also suggests that good news on relative growth and inflation help narrow spreads. Prospects for further narrowing of spreads for Greece and especially for Spain look good. Once the current bout of falling spreads is over, the underlying picture suggested by the estimated model is less good for Ireland, Italy and Portugal and for the euro area core economy, France. In all four cases, the government debt to GDP ratio has been deteriorating, and for France and Italy, competitiveness has not improved significantly. For France, another factor is the rising level of the private debt to GDP ratio. For Ireland, scope is limited for the effect on the spread of further improvements in competitiveness and housing market recovery.