FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION AND ECONOMIC GROWTH OF VIETNAMESE PROVINCES: THE ROLE OF LOCAL PUBLIC GOVERNANCE

This study offers an insight into the public governance role in the relationship between fiscal decentralization and provincial economic growth in Vietnam. Fiscal decentralization measures are assorted. Applying a sequential (two‐stage) estimation for the panel data of 62 provinces of Vietnam over the 2006–2015 period, we find that first, fiscal decentralization is positively related to the economic growth of Vietnamese provinces. Second, the effects of public governance on economic growth vary across provinces depending on various levels of local public governance. Interestingly, the effect of fiscal decentralization is strengthened when this variable is added along with better quality of public governance. In a region of high public governance quality, fiscal decentralization exerts a positive effect on its economic growth. Our findings imply that the design of fiscal decentralization needs to be associated with local governments’ ability of public governance to improve the local economic growth.     

政府关注视角下财政分权对社会参与研发积极度的影响——一个中介效应模型检验

揭示财政分权影响社会参与研发投入的规律对于我国加强和完善地方政府研发投入管理具有重要意义。理论研究表明,财政分权对社会参与研发积极性的影响存在一条由地方政府研发关注度作为中介变量的中介路径。基于此,以2009—2017年中国内地31个省市面板数据为样本,选取地方政府研发关注度作为中介变量,运用基于Bootstrap方法改进的中介效应模型,就全国、分地区、分时段的财政分权对地方政府引导社会参与研发投入的影响进行实证研究。结果表明：从全国和分地区看,财政分权对地方政府引导社会参与研发投入的影响均存在不同程度的中介效应或直接作用,财政分权程度提高会对地方政府引导社会参与研发投入产生不同程度的正向影响。从分时段看,财政分权对社会研发积极度影响的中介效应不存在时段差异。     

The impact of decentralization of health services on health outcomes: evidence from Canada

This article contributes to the limited empirical literature on the impact of decentralization on economic welfare by investigating the hypothesis that shifts towards more fiscal decentralization in health services would be accompanied by improvements in population health. Building on a conventional public finance model applied to health care, this hypothesis is tested on a panel data of the highly decentralized Canadian provinces during the period 1979 to 1995. The results of the exploratory empirical analysis presented in this article suggest that fiscal decentralization of health services in Canada has had a positive and substantial influence on the effectiveness of public policy in improving a population's health over the period studied.     

财政分权对中国收入差距的影响——基于居民收入基尼系数的实证分析

文章在财政分权理论的框架下,利用21个省市区1995～2004年间的面板数据,实证检验了财政分权对中国收入不平等的影响。结果发现：财政分权对中国居民收入差距的整体扩大起到推动作用,但对西部地区的整体和农村的收入差距具有抑制作用;经济发展水平、人口浓度、人力资本和城市化等控制变量对收入差距也有不同的影响。     

Government size,decentralization and growth: empirical evidence from Italian regions

The aim of this study is to empirically assess the relationship among government size, decentralization and economic growth in Italian ordinary regions. The empirical analysis, based on a panel dataset on Italian regions, provides evidence in support of the existence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between public expenditure and economic growth, that depends on the degree of fiscal decentralization. In particular, according to our estimates on the specific Italian case, the optimal degree of decentralization is around 32%, while the optimal government size value is approximately 52%.     

Decentralization and local pollution activities: New quasi evidence from China

Traditional fiscal federalism theory holds that decentralization may improve the provision of public goods and services. However, the social welfare field with strong externalities may face different incentives and behavioural logics. This paper provides novel empirical evidence for the causal relationship between decentralization and local pollution. In this paper, we focussed on China's widely spread decentralization reform, which substantially expanded the economic and social management autonomy of county governments. Using the difference-in-differences method and a panel dataset from 1998 to 2007, we found that the reform would compel affected counties to loosen environmental regulation, adopt financial and fiscal policies that would actually support heavy-pollution industries' rapid economic growth. Overall, the reform led to a significant increase in local pollution, thus worsening the overall environmental quality. Moreover, cost-benefit analysis indicated that the reforms generated net gains in social welfare, but the substantial environmental costs cannot be ignored.     

中国居民消费决定中的财政分权因素

本文首次建立引入财政分权因素的跨期消费资产定价模型,证明中国财政分权是居民消费决定中的关键因素:一方面,分权程度提高会带来居民收入增长,进而促进消费的增加;另一方面,分权程度提高会导致居民收入不确定性的增强,进而引起消费的下降。基于中国29个省区1990-2009年面板数据的实证研究验证了理论模型的判断。研究发现:预期收入水平和收入不确定性同时受财政分权因素影响,当它们共同进入模型时,只有预期收入水平系数显著为正,收入不确定性变量系数显著水平不稳定且符号不符合预期。无论引入控制变量,还是调整变量度量指标,研究结论都是稳健的。缺失财政分权因素的消费资产定价模型对于中国情况缺乏解释力,融入财政分权因素的模型则较好地拟合中国实际。     

中国式分权下的区域创新绩效研究---基于资源获取与资源配置视角的分析

依据资源基础理论,财政自主权作为一种有价值、稀缺、不可完全模仿、组织可利用的财政资源,是地方政府取得良好区域创新绩效的来源;使用2007—2016年中国分省(自治区、直辖市)的面板数据,实证检验了财政分权对区域创新绩效的影响。研究发现:①财政分权对区域创新绩效具有显著的正向影响,在考虑财政分权异质性、创新绩效异质性、创新强度、内生性等问题后,结果依然稳健;②地方政府在运用支出自主权为获取良好的区域创新绩效时,存在"软约束"问题,即收入分权对支出分权与区域创新绩效之间的关系具有约束作用但不显著,可能的原因在于转移支付的"公共池"效应与创新锁定效应。     

中国财政分权、金融发展、 工业化与经济增长的省际差异

本文采用1978-2006年中国28个地区的省际面板数据建立了检验财政分权、金融发展、工业化与经济增长之间长期关系的协整模型（co integration model）,并采用完全修正的最小二乘法（FMOLS）对模型进行估计。本文把地方政府官员参与政治晋升锦标赛竞争的行为影响经济绩效的假设引入对分权化改革过程的分析,对中国改革开放以来地方政府之间的竞争何以在促成经济总量高速增长的同时又导致各地区在财政分权、金融发展、工业化和经济增长方面呈现出差异的原因进行了分析,进而得出本文的分析结论并对其政策含义进行了讨论。     

收入分成、竞争与中国的省份内经济差距

中国的地区差距问题已逐渐成为制约经济发展的重要因素，并受到学术界的广泛关注。然而，作为其主要构成部分的省份内经济差距，现有研究却尚未深入。本文立足于省级以下财政分权体制，从地方政府竞争的角度梳理了政府间收入分成作用于省份内经济差距的具体机制，进而运用1995—2014年县级面板数据构建了省份内经济差距和省级以下收入分成指标，并展开实证检验。研究发现：省级以下收入分成比例的提高，扩大了省份内各县有效税率的差异，进而带来了要素在空间上的不均衡分布和省份内经济差距的扩大。同时，这一作用在经济欠发达省份的效果更为明显。这些发现为理解中国财政分权体制下地区经济差距的形成，以及完善当前财政体制以推动国家治理现代化提供了良好启示。     

Asymmetric Decentralization,Intergovernmental Transfers,and Expenditure Policies of Local Governments

Although China’s asymmetric fiscal decentralization system has been criticized for many years, there have been few studies giving direct evidence of its negative incentives on local government spending policies. By introducing the mechanism of asymmetric decentralization and fiscal transfers to the objective function of local government, this paper studies the incentive effects of asymmetric decentralization and fiscal transfers on spending policies of local governments, and uses the provincial panel data to carry out an empirical test. The conclusion shows that the asymmetric decentralization significantly weakens the incentives of local government to increase social expenditure, and as a solution to asymmetric decentralization, fiscal transfers fail to play a good role. Due to the relatively large income effect, the financing mechanism of fiscal transfers not only significantly reduces the incentives of local government to provide social public goods, but also weakens the constraint effect of fiscal competition on expenditure policies of local governments because of the increase in the relative cost. Although the distribution mechanism of fiscal transfers has a significant positive incentive to local government in regions where the net inflow of fiscal resources is more than zero, because of common pooling effects, the comprehensive effects of fiscal transfers in the distribution of incentives of local governments to provide social public goods are negative in all regions.     

中国财政分权与经济增长——一个荟萃回归分析

为了检验"中国财政分权与经济增长关系"的主要实证结果是否受到具体研究特征的影响,文章选取了现有主要实证文献进行荟萃分析。实证结果表明:中国财政分权对经济增长影响的不同实证结果受到不同研究特征的影响,尤其是"正向显著效应"的实证结果受到"区域、劳资增长率、其他改制、预算内资金"等研究特征的显著影响。通过漏斗不对称检验后发现,样本文献存在发表偏倚问题,且发表偏倚主要发生在支出分权上。     

金融发展、财政分权与地区经济差异

通过对我国28个省份1990-2004年的数据进行面板分析,考察金融发展对地区经济差异的影响,以及与金融联系紧密的财政分权对于这种影响的作用.结果表明:在东部和西部地区,金融发展对经济增长产生了显著的促进作用,而在中部和东北地区,金融发展却没有形成推动经济增长的良性机制.而财政分权对金融发挥促进经济增长作用的影响在不同区域也各不相同,其中仅在东北地区和西部有利于金融发挥促进经济增长的作用,其他地区则产生了不利影响.同时,还考虑了金融政策因素,以及经济的非国有化等反映市场经济制度的变量对金融与地区经济增长之间关系的影响.最后,在实证分析的基础上提出了从区域金融的角度协调我国区域经济发展的政策建议.     

财政分权与地区市场分割实证研究

财政分权对国内市场一体化进程的影响在实证上仍然是一个有待回答的问题。文章首先利用商品零售价格指数数据测度了378对省际间的市场分割度,随后,利用1986~2005年的省级面板数据检验了财政分权、经济分权、对外开放、FDI、相对财富、政府相对规模、预算外支出占预算内支出比重和地理距离对市场分割程度的影响,重点研究财政分权对市场分割的影响。研究发现,财政分权加剧了市场分割度,尤其是收入分权,而经济分权则降低了市场分割度,有益于市场一体化进程。此外,FDI、对外开放、政府相对规模、预算外支出占预算内支出比重是加剧市场分割的因素,而相对财富的提高则有利于促进国内市场一体化。     

财政支农支出对西部农业经济可持续发展的实证分析

本文选取我国西部各省市区1999～2003年的面板数据,利用生产函数框架就财政支农支出对西部农业经济可持续发展的贡献度进行了实证分析。结果显示:地方财政支农支出有利于农业经济增长,其产出弹性系数为0.06。进一步考察发现,各省市区农业投入要素的贡献率不同,可据此将西部各省市区农业经济增长类型分为三类。     

Decentralization and sectoral expenditures in Europe

This article presents an empirical analysis of the recent impact of fiscal decentralization in Europe on total expenditure for specific government functions as well as on total government size. A panel data set for the years 2000–2009 for European countries has been constructed from EUROSTAT data. The effects of decentralization interact with the degree of vertical imbalances and tend to be negative as predicted by the Leviathan view of government. Effects vary strongly across government functions and are strongest in relative terms for social spending and infrastructure. Moderate restraining effects are found for education, while health spending is not significantly affected. This is consistent with competition between subnational entities, which try to attract taxpayers and shift expenses away from policies that benefit neighbouring jurisdictions.     

区域科技投入对经济社会发展水平的影响研究

本文运用主成分分析和因子分析方法评价了2001年～2009年我国30个省、市、自治区(西藏除外)科技投入与经济社会发展的综合水平,并通过面板数据就科技投入对经济社会发展水平的影响进行了分析。结果表明:在科技投入水平上,东部与中、西部地区差距呈现扩大趋势;在人均经济社会总量和环境水平上,科技投入对西部地区影响最大;在经济社会发展综合水平上,科技投入对东部地区影响最大。     

China's Fiscal Decentralization and Regional Economic Growth

The present paper applies Lucas's theory of endogenous growth and Stiglitz's theory of local public goods to build an econometric model consisting of five simultaneous equations to study China's fiscal decentralization effects on regional economic growth. The model is estimated by two‐stage least squares using a set of panel data on 31 Chinese provinces during 1996–2005. The estimated results show that China's fiscal decentralization increased the local governments' expenditure on physical infrastructure and education, which led to the rising local physical capital stock and human capital levels, respectively, and then resulted in the growth of regional economies.     

财政分权、腐败与治理

财政分权对经济发展的影响已经成为转轨经济学研究的重要问题之一。大多数经济学家往往只看到财政分权对经济发展的促进作用,却忽视了在制度供给失衡的情况下,尤其是对像中国这样的转轨经济而言,它对长期经济发展是不利的,会产生诸如腐败等问题。文章运用中国省级面板数据检验了财政分权与腐败之间的关系。结果表明,财政分权恶化了腐败问题。因此,有必要通过完善财政分权体制来缓解其负面效应,这将有利于中国经济健康发展。     

Decentralization and the shadow economy: Oates meets Allingham–Sandmo

This article studies the impact of decentralization on the shadow economy. We argue that decentralization may decrease the size of the shadow economy mainly through two transmission channels: (1) decentralization enhancing public sector efficiency (efficiency effect), and (2) decentralization reducing the distance between bureaucrats and economic agents, which increases the probability of detection of shadow economic activities (deterrence effect). Using various measures of fiscal, political and government employment decentralization in a cross-section of countries, we find the deterrence effect to be of more importance. The deterrence effect is stronger, the lower the degree of institutional quality. We find no robust evidence of the efficiency effect.