Optimal Taxation in a Federal System of Governments

This paper demonstrates that the optimal structure of taxation in a federal system of governments is one in which only lower level governments are allowed to tax, and the higher level of government receives its revenues as contributions from the lower level governments. The central inefficiency created when multiple levels are allowed to tax is a revenue externality between governments that is analogous to a common pool problem. A federal system with multiple levels of taxing authority results in combined tax rates higher than would be optimal, a higher excess burden of taxation, and an inefficiency bias in government spending.     

道光后期州县征漕收支及其与陋规加派的关系——以浙江乌程县为中心的考察

道光时期是重要的社会转型期,学术界从不同视角予以广泛的关注。目前学术界的研究较少涉及州县征漕费用的数额、构成和比例。道光年间尤其道光后期,州县征漕收支数目庞大,弄清数目的实际状况有助于加深对地方弊政的理解。吴煦档案中的乌程县漕用各费的账册资料,记录了该县办漕的收支状况。乌程县征漕费用总计约3万两,由漕务开支、衙门规费、运军兑费三部分构成。清中后期州县的法定漕费远不敷用,州县财政对漕务陋规形成依赖;上级官员、运丁和地方绅衿分润州县漕规收入,形成惯例;州县官则率由旧章,对已有的利益格局通常不做改变。征漕费用和陋规加派具有稳定性和延续性,当需要因事加征时,往往援例加征。征漕陋规虽名义上归州县官所有,但各类开支从规费中支出,所以征漕规费并非州县官的纯收入。州县官借征漕而获利之数,因时、因地、因人而不同。地方财政依赖陋规加派,而陋规又被各利益集团分润,这是清政府腐败集团化的呈现,也是清中后期朝廷囿于“不加赋”之名,惰于进行制度改革的恶果。     

Estimating local fiscal multipliers using political connections

We use political connections between central and local governments in China to identify the effects of government spending. Our key innovation is using changes of central government ministers as a source of exogenous variation in earmarked transfers received by prefectural city-level governments. The analysis reveals that the increase in earmarked transfers is temporary and local effective tax rates do not respond to such fiscal expansions. Given that using cross-regional analysis for a monetary union can difference out the influence of monetary policy, the fiscal shock we study is a temporary, non-tax financed and no-monetary-policy-response government spending shock. We find the local fiscal multiplier in China is above one and there are no significant spillover effects from local government spending.     

分税制改革、城市偏向与中国农业增长

分税制改革因导致中央和地方政府之间财权和事权的不匹配而增加了地方政府的财政压力,从而深刻地改变着地方政府的行为模式。当农业税费全归地方财政收入,农业对经济增长的贡献不断下降而经济增长又成为地方官员政治晋升的主要指标时,面临财政压力的理性地方政府会强化其城市偏向程度,从而损害农业增长。本文运用1978至2009年中国省级面板数据进行的实证分析表明:分税制下的地方财政压力对农业增长特别是粮食增长产生消极影响;非本级财政收入因缓解地方财政压力而有助于农业增长;地方政府对预算外资金的依赖则不利于农业增长。历史和经验证据支持了分税制改革强化地方政府城市偏向的观点。     

项目投融资中的地方政府行为及角色界定

以项目为主体的分散型地方政府项目投融资模式下,行政主导的投融资决策及政企合一经管主体的法律地位和行为准则界定不清,主体间有差异乃至相互冲突的目标与需求必然造成政府项目投融资和经管主体内部的矛盾,项目投融资及经管整体效率低下,难以实现市场价值。应创建投融资和经管主体法律地位和行为目标明晰的统一投融资平台,引导市场资源参与政府投融资项目,促进公共资源的有效配置和利用,以市场化的运作模式提供公共服务。     

投资率与地方政府增值税税源——基于静态和动态面板数据模型的实证分析

文章从全国和省级两个层次,对我国投资率与地方政府增值税税源状况进行描述,并根据国民收入恒等式从理论上证明,提高投资率将会增加地方政府的增值税税源。在此基础上,使用静态和动态面板数据模型,就投资率对地方政府增值税税源的影响进行实证分析。研究结果表明:我国的投资率与地方政府增值税税源成倒U型曲线关系;地方政府增值税税源在时间上具有连续性。基于增值税税源因素的考虑,地方政府有推高投资率的动机,但过高的投资率将侵蚀地方政府增值税税源。我国地方政府应适当控制本辖区的投资率水平,并保持经济调控政策的稳定性。     

Local government and old-age support in the New Deal

A key question in the design of public assistance to the needy is how allocation of responsibility for funding and decision-making across different levels of government influences the level and type of assistance provided. The New Deal era was a period in which this allocation changed significantly in the United States, as provision of public assistance shifted from local governments to states and the federal government, accompanied by a large increase in government transfer payments. Focusing on assistance to the elderly and using variation in state laws governing the division of funding between local and state governments for the Old Age Assistance (OAA) Program, this paper investigates the responsiveness of OAA payments and recipiency to local government funding shares. Payments per elderly resident were significantly lower in states with higher local funding shares, driven largely by reductions in recipiency. The baseline results suggest that had local governments needed to fund half of OAA payments in 1939, on the lower end of local funding shares prior to the New Deal, the share of the elderly receiving OAA would have been 5 percent rather than 22 percent, and perhaps even lower. More speculative results suggest that greater local funding led to lower representation of blacks among OAA recipients relative to their share of the population, particularly in the South.     

论我国税收征管体制之合并

我国国税、地税机构分设、分征分管的税收征管体制的合理性一直存在争议。现行体制存在权力交叉,税收征管成本和税务遵从成本双高等问题。税收征管体制合并是重大制度创新,有利于提高税收行政效率和完善分税制改革,降低"税收交易成本"。税收征管体制合并要贯彻深化行政审批制度改革的精神,精简税政,并在若干自贸区先行先试,逐步实现。     

“省管县”体制下地方政府间税权配置优化问题研究——基于国际比较的分析

本文以当前"省管县"体制改革为背景,在中央和地方政府既定的分税制框架内,研究省以下政府间税权配置问题。通过对发达国家地方政府间税权配置分析和经验借鉴,确立我国地方政府间税权配置的原则,提出我国地方政府间税权配置优化的基本思路。     

Local government consumption and firm performance: Evidence from the "TPCs" in China

Government consumption is an important factor affecting corporate performance. By exploiting a unique data set that reveals the Three Public Consumptions (TPCs) of China’s prefecture-level city governments, this paper investigates the impact of actual local government consumption on corporate performance and identifies the potential impact mechanism. We show that increases in local government consumption did lead to declines in firm productivity. TPC expenditures on official cars and official receptions had the most obvious impact on corporate performance. After considering endogenous measurement errors and substitution variables, the conclusion remained stable. Moreover, we show that the increase of local government TPC expenditures caused an increase in corporate tax burden, a decline in government efficiency, and excessive administrative intervention, which in turn caused a decline in firm performance. Our findings are particularly pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises, in firms with tight financing constraints, and in regions with weak marketization and low budget transparency. This study expands the theory that government behavior affects corporate performance, and also provides policy implications regarding restraints on government consumption.     

Sovereign credit spreads and the composition of the government budget

This paper investigates the relationship between sovereign credit spreads and the composition of the government budget. The key result of this paper is that governments that invest more and spend less on consumption have significantly lower sovereign credit spreads. This finding is in accordance with the endogenous growth theory, which predicts a positive impact of government investment and a negative impact of government consumption on the long-term growth rate. Finally, a broader tax base significantly reduces sovereign credit spreads. A possible explanation may be that governments with more tax receipts are less likely to have liquidity problems to finance their debt charges.     

Sovereign credit spreads and the composition of the government budget

This paper investigates the relationship between sovereign credit spreads and the composition of the government budget. The key result of this paper is that governments that invest more and spend less on consumption have significantly lower sovereign credit spreads. This finding is in accordance with the endogenous growth theory, which predicts a positive impact of government investment and a negative impact of government consumption on the long-term growth rate. Finally, a broader tax base significantly reduces sovereign credit spreads. A possible explanation may be that governments with more tax receipts are less likely to have liquidity problems to finance their debt charges.     

分税制改革20年对民族地区社会经济的影响

我国从1994年开始实行的分税制改革增强了中央政府的宏观调控能力,但却使地方政府承担了更多的支出责任。虽然分税制改革增强了民族地区地方政府的财力,增加了民生支出,使得民族地区基本公共服务均等化功能不断增强,居民收入水平不断提高,但同时民族地区仍然存在财力不足、中央与地方政府财权与事权划分不合理、转移支付制度不完善等问题。因此,本文认为应转变政府和财政职能,优化财政支出结构;合理划分各级政府事权范围,进一步明确各级财政支出职责;建立转移支付的激励约束机制;加强县级政府提供基本公共服务的财力保障。     

Decentralisation in Indonesia

This paper attempts to assess the extent of decentralisation efforts and their impact on various dimensions of the development process. We find relatively little ‘real’ decentralisation (devolution): local governments have little tax autonomy and central priorities tightly constrain most funding from the centre. Indeed, increased revenue flows serve as a disincentive to modest local tax efforts, reduce the relative importance of locally controlled funds and thus retard real decentralisation. Central transfers for health, education and infrastructure have nonetheless significantly improved social and economic indicators. Greater local control over funds is found to lead to more expenditure on the social sectors (and within them on priority areas), and to increase spending on small scale locally oriented infrastructure. More decentralisation thus offers the potential for increased allocations to social and economic priorities, enhancing efficiency and equity within regions; but the promotion of national standards and equity across regions requires central government action.     

是土地供应量与房地产税赋提高了房价吗

自分税制实施后,“土地财政”成为我国地方政府获取收入以支撑财政支出的主要选择,而与此同时房价也在不断上涨。中央政府从民生角度要求地方政府对房价实施调控,地方政府则主要通过调整土地供给量和房地产税税赋来施加影响。土地供应量和税赋会影响供需双方从而影响房价,反过来房价又会影响税收收入及开发商对土地的需求,进而影响社会民生。本文对我国东、中、西部地区住房价格和土地供给量、房地产税税赋之间的关系进行分析,探讨各地区的住房价格上涨原因。通过构建住房价格和土地供给量、房地产税税赋之间的PVAR模型,利用格兰杰因果检验、脉冲分析和方差分解方法来透视地方政府行为对住房价格的影响。分析结果显示,地方政府行为和房价之间存在着联动关系,但在推动住房价格上涨的原因上存在着区域差异：在东部地区,土地供应量影响房价;中部地区,二者联合推动了房价上涨。而在西部地区,房地产税税赋对房价的影响明显。在政策建议上,对地价推动房价的地区要从丰富住房来源和数量入手,而税赋影响房价的地区则要完善相关税制改革。     

房地产调控困局的政府间博弈研究——基于委托-代理视角的分析

在委托—代理视角下,由于分税制改革所带来的地方财力不足的问题,导致地方政府与中央政府的政策目标的不一致。地方政府可能会采取追求自身利益最大化的行为,致使中央政府的政策目标被扭曲。本文基于政府间的静态条件下纳什均衡博弈和委托—代理视角分析房地产调控难的主要原因,以期对于政府的房地产调控失效问题做出解释。     

Rural Informal Taxation in China： Historical Evolution and an Analytic Framework

The present paper examines the historical evolution of China's rural taxation system from the pre-reform period to the late 1990s. We propose that because of information asymmetry between the upper-level and the lower-level governments, local governments had to be granted some informal tax autonomy to fulfill the upper-level policy mandates. This easily led to excessive local informal taxation on farmers. As market liberalization of the grain sector progressed, the low-cost tax instruments implemented through the traditional approach of implicit taxation gradually eroded. Local governments in agricultural regions had to resort to informal fees collected directly from individual rural households while the more industrialized regions shifted to non-agricultural taxes that are less costly in terms of tax collection. Hence, political tension between farmers and local governments in agriculture- based regions emerged and rural tax reform became necessary.     

明代地方官府赋役核算体系的早期发展

明洪武到弘治年间,州县官府的赋役管理从基本不依赖核算向需要且能够进行核算的状态转变。洪武、永乐时期,在官府体系内部,只有田赋被部分地纳入核算管理,其他赋役征发则完全或绝大部分无法计量,也没有计划性。宣德以降,地方官员吸收民间粮里阶层分担赋役负担的经验,在此基础上进行旨在“均平”的改革,以确保赋役的可持续征发。在探索均平之道的过程中,不同地方官员多采取量化赋役负担、预定征收计划、将派征对象标准化并进行摊派核算的方式。其中,田赋额等开始扮演摊派对象的角色。这开启了州县层面赋役征收核算体系的发展之路,也导致府、州、县与户、工等部及布政使司之间产生了赋役核算信息不对称,出现了二重会计结构。     

构建以财产税为地方税主体税种的政策分析

我国地方税主体税种的缺失,导致地方政府的财权与事权严重不匹配,无法满足其提供地方公共支出的需要,影响了税收调节功能的发挥。因此,如何选择地方税主体税种是地方税体系建设要解决的最根本的问题。通过分析我国目前地方税体系的现状,同时明确地方税主体税种选择的导向,提出了确立财产税为我国地方税主体税种的目标模式,并配备相应的改革设计方案,为今后我国地方税主体税种的选育提供一定的参考价值。     

The role of federal funding on the demand for state and local government spending

Federal aid to state and local governments lowers the perceived tax price of state and local government output and, in this way, affects the demand for state and local government. After reviewing some theoretical models, an empirical investigation using data from 1960–89 shows that federal aid makes the demand for state and local government spending more income-elastic. State and local government expenditures have grown more rapidly than federal government expenditures since 1960 and there is some empirical support for the idea that federal aid was an important contributing factor.