Public assets and services delivery in South Africa: Is it really a success?

Poverty alleviation remains a pressing concern for South African policy-makers. Implementing effective anti-poverty policies requires a clear understanding of the nature and extent of poverty. The extant literature on South African poverty dynamics shows a decline in the headcount ratio over the first decade of the twenty-first century. However, the prior research largely adopts a narrow money-metric approach, or uses multi-dimensional indices that include welfare indicators based on private assets (e.g. television sets) or those that are provided publicly (e.g. access to water). This paper uses multiple correspondence analysis to measure non-income poverty trends for the period 2005–12. The novelty in this undertaking lies in an attempt to include a measure of the perceived quality of public assets and services to complement the standard indices. This provides some measure of ‘success’ of public service delivery, accounting for both changes in access and quality.     

FISCAL ILLUSION AT THE LOCAL SPHERE: AN EMPIRICAL TEST OF THE FLYPAPER EFFECT USING SOUTH AFRICAN MUNICIPAL DATA1

While South Africa operates a relatively decentralised governance and administrative structure, an important feature of the country's intergovernmental fiscal relations system is the gap that exists between the expenditure responsibilities of sub‐national authorities and their assigned revenue bases. The resulting vertical fiscal imbalance is mainly addressed via significant intergovernmental transfers to provinces and local governments. This factor presents strong a priori grounds for assuming that in the South African context, the heavy dependence of many local governments on intergovernmental transfers may generate fiscal illusion. Despite this, there have not been many empirical studies of fiscal illusion in South Africa's intergovernmental transfer system. This paper extends existing literature on fiscal illusion by using the fiscal year 2005/06 financial and expenditure data from 237 local government authorities in South Africa to evaluate the flypaper variant of the fiscal illusion hypothesis. Empirical results indicate that the marginal effects of municipal own‐source revenues on local expenditure exceed those of intergovernmental transfers. No statistical evidence in support of the flypaper hypothesis within the context of municipal expenditures in South Africa is found.     

Remittances,social security,and the crowding-out effect: Evidence from Vietnam

In the absence of adequate social security systems, many people in developing countries, especially the poor and vulnerable, cope through migration-related remittances. However, when remittances, internal or international, provide social benefits similar to public transfers they may overlap: ‘crowding-out’ effects occur. Employing three long-sample Vietnam Household Living Standard surveys undertaken during the 2000s, this paper studies the crowding-out effects of remittances in Vietnam, a developing country that has experienced a soaring inflow of remittances since 2000. Significant crowding-out effects for both domestic and international remittances on income are found below the poverty line in Vietnam, consistent with an altruistic motive. Beyond this, transfer derivatives are positive and statistically significant in both areas, suggesting a switch of motives from altruism to exchange at the poverty line. The substituting relationship between public transfers and remittances observed for the rural poor reveals key challenges to delivering an equal and efficient social security system in the country.     

Sectoral Growth and Poverty Alleviation: A Multiplier Decomposition Technique Applied to South Africa

How does an increase in a sector's output affect poverty alleviation? In this paper a multiplier decomposition for a socioeconomic system represented by a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) is used to study this linkage. The decomposition applied to South Africa reveals that growth in agriculture, services and some manufacturing sectors can alleviate poverty for the black African population. For sectoral growth to be effective, however, the need for appropriate skill acquisition for the poor must be addressed directly. Only long-term policies geared towards improving both economic growth and the human capital stock of the poor can lead to significant poverty alleviation.     

我国财政转移支付制度的现实考察与对策建议

财政转移支付是国家宏观调控的重要工具,也是推进基本公共服务均等化的关键手段。近十多年来,随着我国财政体制改革的深化,政府间转移支付的规模不断增长,它在推进改革和促进地区财力平衡方面的重要作用日益加强。但同时也存在一些问题。本文从目标效应、结构和规范性方面对我国现行财政转移支付制度进行了评析,并从财权事权划分、转移支付结构调整和法律制度建设等方面提出了改进和完善我国财政转移支付制度。     

Are intergovernmental transfers in China equalizing?

Since 1994, China's central government has implemented a sequence of fiscal recentralization measures to increase its equalization capacity and reduce regional income disparities. However, the effect of intergovernmental transfers on equalization has been called into question by anecdotal evidence that seems to suggest that transfers from the center are not rule-based and are subject to heavy rent-seeking. Unlike past studies, which have focused on the equalization effects of total fiscal transfers from the center, this paper includes an examination of the equalization effects of different types of transfers because some transfers, which are inherently anti-equalizing, may mask the equalization effects of other types of transfers when they are lumped together to find the “average” effect. Using inequality measures, a decomposition of fiscal disparities, and dynamic panel data models, we find that China's intergovernmental transfer system that was established in 1994 does have some equalizing elements. To a large extent, these elements exist due to the mechanism designed to shrink the tax rebates that bear the legacy of the pre-1994 system; to a small extent, these elements exist due to the rule-based general-purpose transfer whose share in total transfers remains small but has increased since 2002. However, the equalization effects of the largest component of transfers, specific-purpose transfers, are anti-equalizing. They are typically not rule-based and thus subject to political influence. As a result, total transfers also exhibit significant anti-equalization effects.     

Capitalization of local government grants on land values: Evidence from Tokyo metropolitan area,Japan

This study investigates the capitalization effect of intergovernmental fiscal transfers from central to local governments on land prices. Using a drop in the size number of fiscal transfers following fiscal reform in the early 2000 s, this study examines the extent to which unconditional fiscal transfers to municipalities in the Tokyo metropolitan area are attributed to land prices. The result shows that the decline in the transfer has decreased the land prices in the municipalities. Furthermore, reducing one unit in the per capita grant reduced the value of housing area per capita by one or more units, even if the real discount rate was assumed to be as low as 2%. Therefore, the fiscal transfer reform more negatively affects the benefits of residing in a municipality in the area than the reduction amount in the transfer.     

当前我国收入分配领域存在的突出问题与对策

当前我国收入分配领域存在居民收入和劳动报酬两个比重偏低,垄断行业收入畸高名不副实,社会转移分配平衡收入差距作用不足,群体间收入差距呈现全范围多层次的扩大趋势等突出问题,解决这些问题需要用发展和改革的眼光、思路和办法促进经济健康发展,坚持以人为本的分配理念努力提高普通劳动者收入,完善社会主义市场经济体制创造平等致富的环境,紧紧抓住社会转移分配的灵魂"公平",全方位缩小收入差距,使劳动者通过第三次分配获得捐赠性收入,通过第四次分配获得财产性收入。     

中国地方政府总体财力不均等程度及其分解：1997-2005

本文以1997年～2005年全国31省级财政数据为样本,运用基尼系数和GE指数分解法对省级财力差异进行了分解,结果发现：1997年至2005年间我国省际间财力差距没有明显收敛迹象,省际间财力差距一半以上来源于地区内部,并且呈扩大趋势;对省际间财力差异贡献最大的是本级财政收入,其中营业税和增值税贡献是主要因素;净转移支付解释了财力差异的约30％,其中税收返还和专项转移支付是造成省际间差异的主要原因,唯一起到均等化作用的是农村税费改革转移支付,旨在均衡地区间财力差距的一般性转移支付并没起到相应的作用;预算外收入的不平等贡献率大幅缩小,从边际效应看,增加净转移支付和预算外收入的规模,可以降低总体财力差距。     

完善政府间转移支付制度实现公共服务均等化

实现地区间公共服务均等化是我国处理政府间财政关系所长期追求的目标之一.目前,各地公共产品提供很不均衡,这一局面亟待改变.政府间转移支付制度是有助于实现公共服务均等化的,但我国现行的政府间转移支付制度在运行环境和制度本身设计都存在一些问题,文章就此提出了完善现行政府间转移支付制度的一些措施.     

我国财政转移支付制度存在的问题与改革设想

财政转移支付制度是我国财政体制的重要组成部分,在处理政府间财政关系、均衡地区公共服务水平等方面发挥了重大作用。但是,目前我国财政转移支付制度仍存在许多问题。本文从六个方面揭示了目前我国财政转移支付制度存在的问题,并提出了我国财政转移支付制度改革的基本思路、主要原则和具体措施。     

城镇化背景下武陵山区致贫因素与扶贫模式研究——以湖北宣恩县为例

基于调查数据,对宣恩县贫困现状特征、致贫因素进行分析。根据宣恩县当前经济特征以及未来的发展定位,以扶贫开发和区域发展互动为主要思想,总结探讨构建人口城镇化、产业城镇化、公共服务均等化的扶贫模式。     

我国农村扶贫政策的协调配套问题研究

扶贫是一项系统工程,扶贫效益的最大化有赖于各项政策之间的协调、配套。当前农村扶贫政策的协调配套问题比较突出,无论是财政投入、扶贫信贷资金投放、对扶贫龙头企业的扶持,还是对贫困地区人口自身发展能力的开发都存在着一些问题,某些惠农政策、生态工程以及社会保障等政策也还存在着对贫困地区关注不足的问题,因此,财政税收、金融、产业、人力资源、社会保障等各种政策的制定和实施过程中,都应考虑扶贫开发工作的实际需求,做好协调配套。这是提高扶贫效率的必然要求。     

Trajectories of social protection in Africa

Social protection in contemporary Africa is the product of several strands of social policy, from European social security systems to humanitarian relief interventions. Contributory social security mechanisms such as unemployment insurance and pensions were imported to Africa during the colonial period, but cover only a minority of formally employed workers. Food aid alleviates hunger but does not resolve problems of chronic food insecurity. Cash transfers are being promoted as an alternative to food aid, but have been criticised for being ineffective against price inflation and underwriting neoliberal economic policies. Some programmes link social transfers to public works employment and microfinance, with the aim of ‘graduating’ participants off social protection. This article argues instead for a ‘social contract’ approach – recognising the right to social protection, empowering passive beneficiaries to become entitled claimants, and introducing social audits to hold duty-bearers accountable for effective and equitable delivery of citizen-driven social protection policies.     

治边稳藏视域下援藏扶贫与西藏内源式发展研究——以西藏白朗县援藏产业扶贫调查为例

西藏作为深度贫困地区,脱贫攻坚任务艰巨。对口援藏扶贫作为一项重要的制度安排,对西藏全面小康目标的实现具有积极的作用。本文认为,援藏扶贫工作须置于习近平治边稳藏重要论述的指引之下,要以增强西藏自我发展为关键,实现西藏的内源式发展。文章在分析内源式发展理念基础上,以山东省济南市援助西藏日喀则白朗县扶贫为例,阐释了产业扶贫实现内源式发展的具体路径,并从可持续生计、体现长期性、力求科学性等方面探究援藏产业扶贫中蕴含的启示,为脱贫攻坚和乡村振兴有机衔接打下基础。     

Rules,discretion, and international monetary and fiscal policy coordination

This paper considers the implications of international policy coordination when both monetary and fiscal policy choices are endogenous. We show that a movement from insular monetary commitment to international monetary policy coordination will, if fiscal policies are not coordinated, produce higher output and public expenditure levels at the expense of higher inflation rates. We also show that the concurrent coordination of monetary and fiscal policies raises output and inflation while lowering public expenditure relative to a regime of monetary coordination alone. We conclude that the arguments for concurrent monetary and fiscal policy coordination fail to have a clear-cut theoretical basis.     

Social security for young people amidst high poverty and unemployment: Some policy options for South Africa

South African youth experience extremely high levels of unemployment and poverty. Currently there is no social assistance for low-income young adults in South Africa unless they are disabled. Interventions are needed that can achieve widespread poverty alleviation, as well as help facilitate economic participation to improve lifelong earnings. In this article, six examples of social security policy options are considered, including five grants ranging from an unconditional non-means-tested grant for young people to a conditional grant for young people in training or education, plus an ‘Opportunities voucher’ that is administered through the social security system but paid out to organisations offering youth education or work opportunities. Using a tax and benefit microsimulation model to simulate the five grants, we estimate the potential numbers reached and cost, as well as the impact of these six options on poverty.     

财政转移支付、地方政府治理和制造业增长

文章对财政转移支付影响地方经济增长的一种可能的机制进行检验,即转移支付通过恶化地方治理水平进而对地方经济增长产生负面影响。文章基于利用1999～2007年各省制造业细分行业面板数据,运用计量模型进行实证分析,发现在财政转移支付占财政支出比重越高的省份,制造业中对治理水平要求越高的行业增长越慢。这个结果证实了转移支付通过恶化地方政府治理,从而不利于制造业增长的假说。研究认为,更多的转移支付并不一定会导致更快的经济增长,如果没有良好的制度,转移支付还会对落后地区的经济增长产生负面影响。